Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Congress on its Karnataka Assembly election victory on Saturday (May 13). PM Modi expressed gratitude to those who voted for the BJP and promised that BJP will continue to serve the state with zeal in the future. "Congratulations to the Congress Party on their victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls," the PM tweeted. "My best wishes for them in fulfilling people's aspirations," his tweet read.
The Congress returned to power in Karnataka on its own for the first time in ten years on Saturday, knocking the BJP off its sole southern perch as voters decisively backed the grand old party desperately seeking electoral revival ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
As the election results came in, despite several exit polls predicting a hung assembly, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai conceded defeat, the BJP's second defeat after Himachal Pradesh in December last year. The BJP, according to Bommai, failed to make a mark "despite a lot of effort put in by everyone, including the prime minister and party workers".
According to the latest trends on the Election Commission website, the Congress was winning or leading in 136 of the 224 assembly seats in the state, comfortably exceeding the magic number of 113, and the BJP in 64, a sharp decrease from its tally of 104 in 2018. The JD-S, which had hoped to be the deciding factor, was leading in 20 seats, down from 37 the previous time.
Celebrations erupted at the Congress' offices across the country, from Bengaluru to Bikaner, Ranchi to Ahmedabad, as party workers danced to drumbeats and burst firecrackers. Read More.
According to EC trends, the BJP's vote share fell from 36.22 per cent in the last assembly election to 35.8 per cent. The Congress' vote share has increased from 38.04 per cent to a maximum of 43.1 per cent. The gains may have come from the JD-S, whose vote share fell from 18.36 per cent to 13.33 per cent, according to the trends.
JD-S leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy visited the Shri Basaveshwara Gayatri temple to offer prayers, hoping for a victory that would make his party a key player in government formation.