The ruling Bharatiya Janata party lost control of a crucial southern state to the Indian National Congress in a closely watched election, inflicting a rare political setback on Prime Minister Narendra Modi a year before a nationwide poll.
Initial results released as of 8 p.m. Saturday by the Election Commission of India showed Congress had won or led 136 of the 224 seats up for grabs in the Karnataka state assembly.
The BJP had won or was leading in 65 seats, suggesting Congress would be able to form a government without a coalition partner.
Karnataka is one of India’s wealthiest states and home to the technology hub of Bengaluru. Defeat means the BJP will lose the only state it governs in the south of the country.
Modi personally campaigned for a week ahead of Wednesday’s vote, which the BJP and Congress have called strategically important. Candidates from both parties raised issues of religion, caste, economy and corruption.
“We did not manage to make an impression, despite a lot of effort [that] have been put in place by everyone from our Prime Minister to the workers,” said Basavaraj Bommai, BJP Chief Minister of Karnataka, in remarks conceding defeat that were streamed online on Saturday.
The results will be a big boost for Congress, which was India’s dominant political party for decades before being crushed by the BJP in national elections in 2014 and 2019.
A senior congressional official attributed the party’s victory to leading the campaign on local issues.
“The Prime Minister injected division and tried to polarize,” said Jairam Ramesh, Congress Secretary General for Communications, writing on Twitter. “The vote in Karnataka is for an engine in Bengaluru that will combine economic growth with social harmony.”
Modi, joined by Amit Shah, his chief deputy and interior minister, and other officials had campaigned in Karnataka on the strength of providing a ‘dual engine’ government for the state, with the ruling BJP in power. New Delhi and Bengaluru.
Ahead of the election, the BJP state government scrapped a 4% reservation as part of affirmative action jobs quotas for minority Muslims and reallocated it to two other disadvantaged groups in a move seen as appealing to its Hindu nationalist base. Muslims make up about 13% of Karnataka’s population.
An analyst said the result was a clear victory for Congress, but noted that much of the party’s gains appeared to have come at the expense of Janata Dal (secular), the third-largest party, rather than the BJP.
“This is a clear victory for Congress,” said Bengaluru-based author and journalist Sugata Srinivasaraju. “But I wouldn’t extrapolate that and say 2024 will necessarily be similar because the BJP appears to have retained its vote share.”
Congress had described Karnataka’s vote, as well as other upcoming state elections, as a stepping stone to rebuilding its nationwide base.
Additional reporting by Jyotsna Singh in New Delhi
—————————————————-
Source link