Karnataka Elections: Congress Completely Thrashes The BJP, Modi Factor Fails

Congress party wins 135 seats, BJP reduced to 66 seats in 224 seat assembly

Congress party has won 135 seats in the 224 seat assembly of Karnataka which means 22 seats more than the halfway majority mark of 113. Incumbent BJP got reduced to 66 seats from earlier count of 104. The third major political party in Karnataka state JDS won 19 seats in today’s Karnataka Election results.

Congress Completely Thrashes The BJP

A big boost for Congress Party

This is a massive boost for the Congress party as the state of Karnataka is politically very important in nation’s political space. The state has large assembly of 224 members and it is also a economic engine. This is Congress party’s second state win in last 5 months after Himachal Pradesh. The grand old party can use this momentum as ‘Sanjivani’ to thrust its campaign across the country.

This is probably first big win for Congress party after December 2018 and this clean big victory is what the whole opposition required as a moral and confidence boost before the run up to the next year’s general election against the BJP juggernaut.

BJP Mukt South India

With this election result the saffron party is now out of power from the only southern state where they had a government. This has made the saffron party’s efforts to penetrate the southern part of India fall on its face. In the 5 south Indian states BJP now has no presence or negligible presence left in the form of 65 seats it was able to secure in today’s election results .

Modi’s Defeat ?

Close to 20 rallies and 6 road shows alone by the PM shows how important the state of Karnataka was for the saffron party which has not yet succeeded in penetrating down south.

Prime Minister Modi made this election campaign about himself by stating the number of times he has been cursed by opposition or by making speeches around himself and asking Kannadigas to do a task for ‘Modi’. This approach did not work this time and BJP faced a landslide defeat at the hands of Congress party who kept the focus on the local population and fought the election on local issues and public matters. The Congress party with a few slips in between made sure to focus on public issues and addressing their resentment against the corrupt BJP govt.

Bajrangbali vs Bajrangdal

The election campaigning in Karnataka saw a shift in momentum for a few days when Congress released their manifesto which included a ban on extremist organizations such as PFI and Bajrang Dal. PM Modi again tried his very best to capitalize on this issue and openly gave his speeches a communal color by invoking ‘Bajrangbali Ki Jai’ with the masses. UP CM Yogi Adityanath who was also campaigning in the election gave a boost to this through his statements in public rallies.

It looks like that this move backfired on the BJP as equating an organization Bajrang Dal with Lord Hanuman himself didn’t go well with Kannadigas or it can be assumed that the communal sentiment which the BJP uses very well in the Hindi belt could not have that kind of an effect in Karnataka at all.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra Effect

Rahul Gandhi walked for 20+ days in Karnataka last year during his nation wide walk the Bharat Jodo Yatra and covered around 20 constituencies during the yatra’s run through Karnataka. Congress party gained massively in those constituencies with an exception of a few seats going to BJP. This shows that the Yatra had an impact on the population there.

Siddaramiah DK Shivkumar and CP Kharge The Local Boys

Former chief minister of Karnataka Siddaramiah’s charm and stature, DK Shivkumar’s blood and sweat wrenching organizing and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s appeal being a local of Karnataka along with his active and aggressive campaigning at his age also had an impact in sending a positive message across the party cadre.

Conclusion

The victory for the Congress party is massive and it will definitely give some much needed momentum and confidence to the grand old party not only in front of the BJP but it will also solidify their position in the opposition political space as well. Congress party has now majority government in 4 states out of which 2 states Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh are going into an election towards the end of this year.