With the Congress crossing halfway mark and moving towards absolute majority in Karnataka, the BJP state leadership has admitted the party's failure in the crucial assembly polls. “In spite of a lot of efforts put in by PM & BJP workers, we've not been able to make the mark,” Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai told media-persons on Saturday.
Adding that the party will conduct a detailed analysis, he said: “We take this result in our stride to come back in Lok Sabha elections.”
BJP leader and Karnataka minister C.N. Ashwathnarayan said the party was surprised at the results. “We need to accept people's verdict, it is in the favour of Congress...Let's see the factors that went against BJP, let's discuss and debate later,” he said.
According to the latest trends available on the Election Commission website, the Congress is leading in 127 of the 224 assembly seats in the state, while the BJP is ahead in 68. The JD-S is leading in 22 seats.
The Congress, celebrating its big victory at the party headquarters in Bengaluru and Delhi, thanked voters and said that claims made by the BJP top brass including Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no effect on the voters. "I had been saying let Narendra Modi or Amit Shah or J P Nadda come how many ever times they want to the state (but) that will have no impact on the voters of Karnataka because people are fed up with BJP, their corruption, maladministration and their anti-people politics," veteran leader Siddaramaiah, a leading contender for the CM's post, said.
