Congress won an emphatic victory in Karnataka elections by winning 136 of the 224 seats on Saturday, reducing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a poor second with just 65 seats and pushing it out of power in the only southern state it ruled. With this major victory the grand old party has boosted its own prospects for the electoral battles ahead.
However, the Congress still faces a tough task in choosing a chief minister.
There are two strong contenders for the post — former chief minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief DK Shivakumar — and the party's high command has called for a meeting of all the winning candidates on Sunday to decide on who will be the legislative party leader. The final decision, however, will probably to be left to the party high command.
According to the latest Election Commission data, Congress has got 42.8% vote share, BJP 36.1% vote share and JDS got 13.2% vote share. |
Newly elected MLAs will give their opinion and that will be communicated to the high command which will take a decision: Siddaramaiah
As per EC data at 9:45 am --- BJP is leading in 61 seats, Congress in 95, JDS in 19 seats. |
As per Election Commission website at 9:12 am, BJP is leading in 12 seats. Congress is ahead in 25 seats while JDS is at 2. |
Key constituencies to look out for on the result day are: Varuna, Kanakapura, Shiggaon, Hubli-Darwad, Channapatna, Shikaripura, Chittapur, Ramanagara, and Chikmagalur.
The results in these seats could well sway the eventual outcome of the Assembly polls. Also, the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities, accounting for 17 and 11 per cent of the state's population, will also play a key role in deciding the eventual poll outcome.
