Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that the party will fulfil the five promises it made to the people of Karnataka on the first day of the first cabinet. Adressing the media in New Delhi, the party leader said targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party saying the poor people have defeated the crony capitalists. "There was power of crony capitalists on one side and strength of poor people on the other in Karnataka and strength defeated power," he said.
"This will happen in all the staates," he added.
"Congress fought on issues of poor people. I am happy we did not fight this election with hate. We fought with love and affection."
"Markets of hate shut, shops of love opened in Karnataka," he remarked
Party president Mallikarjun Kharge also thanked the people of Karnataka "for giving a huge mandate" to Congress. "We will uphold their belief in us. We will implement all the welfare schemes we have announced in our manifesto. I thank Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, and Sonia Gandhi who campaigned even when she wasn't well," said Kharge.
As the party maintained a lead over incumbent BJP, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar broke down while expressing happiness over his party's comfortable victory in the Karnataka State Assembly Elections. He thanked the cadres for their endless support. The counting of votes for the Karnataka Assembly Elections is underway and Congress is emerging as the single largest party in the state. He thanked voters for believing in his party and giving it a chance.
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He further thanked Congress leader Sonia Gandhi for her support by saying, "I can't forget Sonia Gandhi visiting me after the "BJP people" jailed me."
The Congress is leading on 135 seats with 20 seats that it has won so far.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai earlier in the day accepted the party's defeat and is expected to tender his resignation later in the day. "We will take result in our stride, we will reorganize the party and come back in Lok Sabha election,," he said.
The counting process began at 8 am across 36 centres throughout the state. The voting on May 10 witnessed a "record" turnout of 73.19 per cent, as citizens cast their votes to elect representatives for the 224-member Assembly.