BJP sweeps out Congress from Karnataka

The Bharatiya Janata Party has got a clear mandate from voters in Karnataka and is set to form the next government in the state.

Leads put out by the Election Commission of India on the Karnataka Assembly results show BJP way ahead of the Congress with 112 seats to the incumbent party's 64, while the JD(S) led in 39 seats.

Counting is on in 222 constituencies of the 224-seat Assembly. Voting was not held in two seats. A party requires 112 seats to get a clean majority to form government.

The results have rubbished all exit polls which predicted a tight race between the two main rivals — BJP and Congress — in the Karnataka Assembly elections with the JD(S) emerging as a likely kingmaker.

The Congress’ presence in the country has drastically shrunk since the BJP decisively won the general elections in 2014. Ever since, it has ousted the Congress in a dozen states, and now looks set to deal a crushing defeat to the incumbent party in one of its last bastions –



Karnataka.

The Congress now rules only three states – Punjab, Mizoram and Puducherry.

With Karnataka, the BJP’s tally of states rises from 7 in 2014 to 22.

In the outgoing Assembly in Karnataka, Congress had 122 seats, the BJP and JD(S) 40 each and independents and smaller parties 22.

The Congress had hoped to get a second term in Karnataka by beating the general anti-incumbency streak in the state. No party has come back a second term in nearly 30 years. Unfortunately, the Congress fared poorly in all eight regions of the state.

The BJP, on the other hand, has improved vote and seat share since 2013. The Prime Minister’s decision to waive farm loans have gone down well with farmers as the party did well in the rural belt. It also came out trumps in the coastal belt, central and Mumbai Karnataka.

The JD(S) retained the Mysuru belt, though its hopes of playing kingmaker -- in case of a hung Assembly -- was decisively crushed.