Several leaders felt that the BJP's decimation in Karnataka could be repeated in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress has won 131 of the 224 Assembly seats and is leading in five others. (Creative Commons)
Parties across the political spectrum across India congratulated the Congress for its spectacular performance in the Karnataka Assembly elections.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday, 13 May, asserted that the moral of the Karnataka Assembly poll results was that the people “want plurality” and that “no central design to dominate” could repress them.
Congratulating the people of Karnataka for their voting in favour of a change, the fiery TMC supremo also said that “brute authoritarian and majoritarian” politics has been vanquished.
“My salutations to the people of Karnataka for their decisive mandate in favour of change!! Brute authoritarian and majoritarian politics is vanquished!!
“When people want plurality and democratic forces to win, no central design to dominate can repress their spontaneity: that is the moral of the story, the lesson for tomorrow,” Banerjee tweeted.
At the time of filing this report, the Congress had won 136 of the 224 Assembly seats. The BJP was at a distant second with 65 wins, according to the Election Commission website.
Congratulating the Congress, AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the BJP to realise that its tactics would not work anymore.
He, however, sought to downplay AAP’s dismal performance, saying a time would come when it would win in Karnataka as well. The AAP has drawn a blank, securing just 0.58 percent of votes.
Kejriwal hailed his party candidate Sushil Rinku’s victory in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll in Punjab, terming it “historic and unprecedented”.
“Congratulations to them,” the chief minister told reporters at the party headquarters here when asked to comment on the Congress’s victory in Karnataka.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the Assembly election trends that projected a Congress victory was the beginning of the “end” of the BJP’s negative, communal, and corrupt politics.
Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi: “The message from Karnataka is that the ‘antkaal (end)’ of the BJP’s negative, communal, corrupt, pro-rich, anti-women, anti-youth, socially divisive, propaganda, individual-centric politics has begun.”
“This is a strict mandate of a new positive India against inflation, unemployment, corruption, and animosity,” he added.
Bihar’s ruling Mahagathbandhan — or the grand alliance — which has the Congress as one of its constituents, celebrated the party’s sterling performance.
“In Karnataka, the BJP tried every trick in the book and played the communal card to the hilt. Even the prime minister campaigned in a manner that was unbecoming of his high office. But all these tricks failed, under the weight of the corruption of the BJP government in Karnataka which is now going to be BJP-mukt.” JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, tweeted.
“In the recent past, the BJP has been ousted from power in Karnataka and the Delhi Nagar Nigam. This year, Madhya Pradesh shall be BJP-mukt and so will be the country in 2024… just wait”.
Shivanand Tiwary, national vice president of the RJD, the largest constituent of the Mahagathbandhan, said in a statement “The mandate in Karnataka sends out the clear message that the formation of a new government, after the Lok Sabha polls, under a new prime minister, is possible.”
The veteran socialist leader insisted that “More than the BJP, the defeat is that of Narendra Modi, who ran a fantastically frenzied campaign. The way he chanted the name of Bajrangbali showed his scant regard for the post he holds and the fact that he is watched the world over.”
National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah said that the BJP would not the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir after its dismal performance in Karnataka.
“Now there is no way BJP will have the courage to allow Assembly elections to take place in Jammu and Kashmir any time soon #KarnatakaElectionResults,” Abdullah, the vice president of the NC, tweeted.
Non-BJP parties, including the NC, PDP, and Congress in Jammu and Kashmir have been demanding Assembly elections. The last Assembly polls in the erstwhile state took place in 2014.
In 2018, then Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the Assembly after the BJP withdrew its support to the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP alliance. Jammu and Kashmir were put under Central rule, and in 2019, it was divided into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Describing the Karnataka results as a “ray of hope”, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti expressed hope that the rest of the country would also reject “communal politics” and vote for its development and prosperity.
Mufti’s remarks came after the Congress emerged as the clear winner in Karnataka.
“The BJP tried its best to communalise the situation as is their habit. They even brought Bajrangbali, religion, and Hindu-Muslim to the discourse. The prime minister tried to take the discourse on religious lines. Despite that, people kept these issues on the sidelines and chose the issue of development, on which the Congress ran its campaign,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister told reporters in Srinagar.
Mufti said be it Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra or other Congress leaders, they built a narrative around development, employment, and welfare schemes, and people voted for it.
“It is good news because the general elections are to take place the next year,” she added.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut termed the BJP’s loss in the Karnataka elections as the defeat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“Bajrangbli’s mace has fallen on the BJP,” Raut told reporters.
The Congress, in its election manifesto for Karnataka, promised to clamp down on extremist organisations and referred to banned Islamist outfit PFI and the Bajrang Dal, the VHP’s youth wing, in the same vein.
Addressing an election rally in Karnataka, Modi hit out at the Congress for promising to ban the Bajrang Dal and lock up those who chant ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ (Hail Lord Hanuman).
“This is the defeat of Modi and Shah,” Raut said, adding that whatever has happened in Karnataka now would exactly be what would take place in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The results of Karnataka elections were a pointer to the results of Lok Sabha polls next year, Raut said.
“Pro-poor promises and secular stance helped Congress to score the historic Karnataka victory. It urges them to learn the necessary lessons and to be more responsible in national politics. Modi is never invincible. If all secular forces are united, 2024 will see the end of BJP Raj,” said Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Binoy Viswam.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra tweeted, “Thank you Karnataka. For choosing LPG over Bajrangbaliji.”
CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya also thanked the people of the state for the mandate.
“Thank you #Karnataka for giving such a fitting rebuff to not just the corrupt and non-performing Bommai regime but to the hate-filled and arrogant Modi-Shah-Yogi campaign. It has set the stage for the forthcoming elections and encouraged every defender of democracy across India,” he said in a tweet.
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