Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said that Karnataka Assembly election results confirmed that the Congress had won and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lost.
With Election Commision trends in early rounds of counting indicating that Congress looked poised for a win, Ramesh said that Karnataka has rejected the BJP’s campaign which was “a referendum on the PM.” “As the results firm up in Karnataka it is now certain that the Congress has won and the PM has lost. The BJP had made its election campaign a referendum on the PM and on the state getting his ‘ashirwaad’. That has been decisively rejected!”, Jairam Ramesh tweeted.
According to the Congress leader, his party fought the Karnataka polls on local issues — livelihood and food security, price rise, farmer distress, electricity supply, joblessness, and corruption.
He accused PM Modi of having injected divisiveness and polarising voters in the elections.
“The PM injected divisiveness and attempted polarisation. The vote in Karnataka is for an engine in Bengaluru that will combine economic growth with social harmony,” Jairam Ramesh tweeted.
Earlier, exit polls predicted a hung assembly with some showing Congress returning to power with a majority. A few exit polls also showed BJP ahead. Polling went off peacefully on May 10, with the eventual voter turnout recorded at 73.29 per cent.
A political party needs to win 113 seats to reach the majority mark and stake a claim to forming the government in Karnataka.