After spending seven years on the sidelines of power,the Congress on Wednesday stomped to a comfortable victory in the Karnataka assembly polls,on the back of a strong anti-incumbency wave against the first BJP government in southern India. Contrary to some calculations of the Congress falling short of the simple majority of 113 in the 224-member assembly,the party won 121 seats,putting it in a position to form the new government in the state in the next few days. The BJP won just 40 seats in comparison to its 110 in the 2008 polls. The party suffered the further ignominy of not finishing even as the principal opposition party,as it tied with the Janata Dal (Secular) of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda. The Election Commissions map of Karnataka,which was emblazoned with saffron on counting day in 2008,turned the dark blue of the Congress by Wednesday afternoon,with just hints of the BJPs saffron and the JD(S)s green. Following the BJPs defeat,Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar submitted his resignation to Governor H R Bhardwaj in the evening. He blamed the confusion in the government,divisions in the party and corruption issues for his partys loss. Congresss leader of opposition and possible chief ministerial candidate Siddaramaiah attributed the partys victory to its promise of stability and good governance. In the course of its victory,the Congress stormed what in recent years had become BJP bastions,like the Mumbai Karnataka region,where it won as many as 30 of the 56 seats. The BJPs votes in many constituencies got split by the Karnataka Janata Party of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa. The BJP had won 33 seats in the region in 2008. In coastal Karnataka,the Congress won 10 of the 13 seats in Mangalore and Udupi,while it won 21 of the 40 seats in the Hyderabad Karnataka region,setting the foundation for its overall victory. In Bangalore,the Congress won 13 of the 28 seats,while the BJP managed to retain 12 of the 17 seats it had won in 2008. In a setback for the Congress,Karnataka PCC chief G Parameshwara was defeated in Koratagere constituency. His loss,however,has narrowed the field for the partys chief ministerial aspirants. Among the frontrunners are Siddaramaiah,leader of the Congress legislature party in the outgoing assembly who is an OBC-Kuruba leader with a pan-Karnataka appeal,and Union Minister Mallikarjun Kharge,a Dalit leader with vast administrative experience. Both have shown interest in the top post. Besides Parameshwara,the other big names who were defeated are: Siddaramaiah loyalist and former union minister C K Ibrahim,former state BJP president K S Eshwarappa,and state JD(S) president H D Kumaraswamys wife Anitha Kumaraswamy. The number of seats we got was less than what we had expected. We need to do some serious introspection. We suffered setbacks in many areas,not just coastal Karnataka, said state BJP president Prahlad Joshi. He said the partys collective leadership should own responsibility for the loss. On Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modis campaign not having any visible effect on the partys fortunes in Karnataka,Joshi said it would be wrong to single out any one leader of the BJP when all national leaders had campaigned in the state. Meanwhile JD(S) leader Kumaraswamy expressed disappointment at his party not winning 90 seats as anticipated by him,despite improving its tally from 28 in 2008. He blamed some of the pre-poll surveys projecting the JD(S) as being restricted to south Karnataka for the lack of numbers. Personally,I had a lot of expectations because in the last five years it was the JD(S) that highlighted the misdeeds of the BJP government. But the Congress party,despite not doing anything as the principal opposition party,has managed to win over the electorate, he said. On his wifes loss in Channapatna,Kumaraswamy said it because of over confidence,saying he had not campaigned in the constituency.
