Karnataka Election Results: Congress Legislature Party Passes Resolution, Gives Power to Kharge to Pick CM

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Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had a conversation over the phone with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi regarding the formation of the Karnataka government, sources said. A closed-door meeting was held at an apartment owned by Congress MLA Bairathi Suresh, according to News18 reports.

Earlier, posters were displayed outside the residences of Congress leaders DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru, indicating their potential candidacy for the top post. Both leaders are considered strong contenders for the position, which could impact the party’s chances in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress party’s victory of 135 seats in the recent elections has undermined the BJP’s hold on the southern region.

BJP candidate C K Ramamurthy won the Jayanagar seat in Karnataka by a narrow margin of 16 votes against his Congress rival Soumya Reddy. The announcement was made at the Counting Centre at S S M R V College in Jayanagar. A recount of postal ballots was ordered by the Election Commission after Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy held a narrow lead over BJP’s C K Ramamurthy.

Ramalinga Reddy, a senior Congress leader, has accused BJP leaders of influencing election officials in Jayanagar constituency after his daughter Soumya Reddy’s defeat. He claimed that Tejasvi Surya, R Ashok, and a BJP observer from Uttar Pradesh pressured revenue and returning officers to demand a recount. While the Election Commission of India initially declared Soumya as the winner, Reddy announced plans to legally challenge the result.

The Congress emerged as the winner in the high-voltage Karnataka assembly elections, securing 135 seats out of 224, according to the Election Commission of India. The BJP won 65 seats, while JD(S) won 19 seats. Two independent candidates also won in the election, and Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha each won one seat.

The JD-S, which had hoped to be kingmaker, won 19 seats, down from 37 last time with its vote share decreasing to 13.32 per cent from 18 per cent in the previous elections.

Amid massive celebrations at the Congress headquarter in New Delhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi said “I am happy we contested the Karnataka polls without using hate, bad language. We fought the polls with love. In Karnataka, the market of hate (‘nafrat ka bazaar’) has closed down and shops of love (‘mohabbat ki dukaanein’) opened.”

The strength of the poor has defeated the power of crony capitalists and this will happen in all states, he added

Following Karnataka BJP’s defeat in the Assembly polls, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai submitted his resignation to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot. Karnataka continued its 38-year-old anti-incumbency trend thanks to the aggressive pro-poor campaign led by mass leader and Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar. Since 1985, the state has never re-elected an incumbent party to power.

Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah has stated, “The five guarantees we have given will be approved in the first cabinet meeting and we will then pass an order.” He also said, “The mandate given by the people is to give a pro-people administration and not for enjoyment.” The Congress has promised to implement “guarantees” such as “200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (YuvaNidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti).”

Siddaramaiah also criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating, “Modi said these promises will not be fulfilled as it will burden the state with debts. Modi himself burdened the country with debts. It is the BJP which has pushed the state towards bankruptcy.”

Shivakumar expressed his gratitude towards the Gandhi family by saying, “I can’t forget Sonia Gandhi visiting me after the BJP people jailed me.” He went on to add that he had promised the Gandhi family and Kharge that he would deliver Karnataka to them.

The morale-boosting triumph will be critical in reviving the party’s electoral prospects before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Eye on Lok Sabha Elections

The Congress party’s victory in the Karnataka assembly polls is likely to help them secure three of the four Rajya Sabha seats from the state that will fall vacant next year. The tenure of four Rajya Sabha members from the state will end in 2024, including Syed Nasir Hussain, G C Chandrashekhar, and L Hanumanthaiah of the Congress and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP.

The BJP, which won 65 of the 224 assembly seats in the state on Saturday, will be able to get one nominee elected to the Rajya Sabha next year. Currently, the BJP has six Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The Congress has five members, and the Janata Dal (Secular) has one member of the Rajya Sabha out of the 12 seats from the state.

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is the only JDS member in the Rajya Sabha. The tenure of Deve Gowda and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge will end in 2026, along with that of Iranna Kadali and Narayana Koragappa (both of the BJP). The tenure of four other members, including Sitharaman, will end in 2028.

The counting took place where tension arose as Congress state president D K Shivakumar, state unit working president Ramalinga Reddy (who is also Sowmya Reddy’s father), and other leaders protested outside the polling booth, alleging the misuse of government machinery to favor Ramamurthy. Despite their protests, election officials declared Ramamurthy as the winner with a margin of only 16 votes. The Congress party has now won 135 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, while the BJP has won 66 seats and the JD(S) has won 19, according to the Election Commission website.

In the outgoing Assembly, the BJP had 116 MLAs, followed by the Congress with 69, JD(S) with 29, BSP with one, two independents, one speaker, and six vacant seats (due to deaths and resignations to join other parties prior to the polls).

However, the results for the Jayanagar constituency in Bengaluru are still pending as the Election Commission ordered a recount of postal ballots due to a narrow lead held by Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy over BJP’s C K Ramamurthy.

(With inputs from PTI)