New Delhi: A day after the Congress registered a thumping victory in Karnataka, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday urged the party to “win people’s hearts” by being “open, honest and non-discriminatory” over the next five years. Taking to Twitter, Sibal wrote, “Winning elections is tough. Winning people’s hearts is tougher! For the next five years win people’s hearts by being open, honest, non-discriminatory. BJP lost for not being any of this.”
The Congress made a stunning comeback in Karnataka, ousting the BJP from its lone south citadel with a comfortable majority in a morale booster victory that will be key for reviving its electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
After the results were announced on Saturday, Kapil Sibal had tweeted, “The PM lost, the people of Karnataka won. No to 40%, Kerala story, Divisive politics, Arrogance, Falsehood. Congress deserved to win.”
Sibal, who was a Union Minister during the successive UPA governments, had resigned the Congress in May last year and was elected to the Rajya Sabha as an Independent member with the Samajwadi Party's support.
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Notably, with an aggressive campaign against BJP, the Congress won 136 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, increasing its vote share by more than four per cent across different regions.
In the 2018 elections, the Congress had garnered a vote share of 38.04 per cent, followed by the BJP (36.22 per cent) and the JD(S) with 18.36 per cent. In the just-concluded elections, Congress' vote share rose to 42.88 per cent and that of JD(S) dropped to 13.29 per cent. The BJP, however, was able to hold to its vote share of 36 per cent.