The poll results are expected to energize the deeply divided opposition, which is counting on forming a united front to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in next year’s general elections.
By-election results showed that the opposition Indian Congress party won power in a key state, defeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a year ahead of national elections.
It removed Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party from office in Karnataka, the only southern state controlled by the Hindu nationalist assembly.
And the Election Commission website showed that with dozens of results still coming in Saturday, Congress had already won 114 seats in the 224-seat chamber, enough for an overall majority, and was ahead in 22 others, giving it a soft cushion. .
Karnataka has a population of over 60 million – roughly the same as the UK – and its capital, Bengaluru, is India’s tech hub. The state voted on Wednesday and full results are expected later on Saturday.
This is the second state that Modi’s party has lost to Congress in the past six months. In December, Congress ousted the Bharatiya Janata Party in northern Himachal Pradesh, a small Himalayan state.
The poll results are expected to energize a deeply divided opposition that is counting on presenting a united front to challenge Modi in next year’s general election, during which he will seek to extend his premiership for a third consecutive term.
Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress, attributed the party’s victory to campaigning on domestic issues such as “livelihood and food security, price hikes, farmers’ distress, electricity supply, unemployment and corruption”.
“The PM injected dissension and attempted polarization. The vote in Karnataka is for an engine in Bengaluru that will combine economic growth with social harmony,” Ramesh wrote on Twitter.
“The markets of hate have closed and the shops of love have opened,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told reporters at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi, where jubilant supporters and party members set off fireworks and danced to the beat of drums.
Over the past two years, Modi’s party has been trying to maximize gains in the state of Karnataka, where sectarian polarization between the Hindu majority and Muslim minority has deepened after BJP leaders and supporters banned girls from wearing headscarves as part of their school uniform.
According to the 2011 census, the most recent census in India, 84 percent of Karnataka’s population is Hindu, about 13 percent Muslim and less than 2 percent Christian.
“I respectfully accept this ruling.”
BJP leader BS Yediurapa, a former chief minister, conceded defeat.
“Victory and defeat are not new to the BJP,” he told reporters. “we will [be introspective] About the party setback. I accept this ruling with all due respect.”
The party has waged a major campaign in the state with Modi himself visiting to promote his strong brand of Hindu politics.
At one rally, Modi praised a sensational new film that grossly exaggerates the number of Hindu women who have converted to Islam and joined the Islamic State (ISIS).
Modi also tried to woo Hindu voters by reciting an ode to the monkey god Hanuman.
“This election has revealed the limits of Modi’s popularity,” Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, political commentator and author of Narendra Modi: The Man, told The Times.
“This shows that the BJP’s attempts to polarize voters one way or another have not succeeded and that there are limits to Hindutva politics,” he told AFP.
He said a victory would strengthen the Congress party’s position within the chain of opposition parties, but would likely not affect the overall result in 2024.
Congress, the party of India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, has dominated politics in the country for decades, but has been on the decline for years, and a victory in Karnataka will bring the number of states it controls to just four.
The Bharatiya Janata Party failed to achieve a majority in the last state election in Karnataka in 2018, but took power a year later by persuading members of the ruling coalition to defect.
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