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The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lost control of a key southern state to the Indian National Congress in a high-profile election, giving Prime Minister Narendra Modi a rare political setback a year ahead of national polls.
Initial results released by the Indian Electoral Commission at 8 pm Saturday showed the parliament winning or leading in 136 of the 224 contested seats in the Karnataka legislature.
The BJP had won or led by 65 seats, suggesting that parliament could form a government without a coalition partner.
Karnataka is one of India’s wealthiest states and is home to the tech hub of Bangalore. The defeat means the Bharatiya Janata Party loses the only state it governs in the southern part of the country.
Modi personally campaigned for a week ahead of Wednesday’s vote, which the Bharatiya Janata Party and parliament said was strategically important. Candidates from both parties raised issues such as religion, caste, economy and corruption.
“Despite a lot of effort, we were not able to reach our goal.” [that] Everyone from the Prime Minister to the workers has resisted,” Karnataka Indian Bharatiya Janata Party Prime Minister Vasavaraj Bhomay said in a conceding remark aired online on Saturday.
The result would be a big boost for the parliament, which was India’s dominant party for decades before being crushed by the BJP in the 2014 and 2019 national elections.
Senior parliamentary officials attributed the party’s victory to the election campaign on local issues.
“The prime minister has tried to divide and polarize,” said Jairam Ramesh, parliament’s public affairs secretary. I have written on Twitter. “Votes in Karnataka call for a Bangalore engine that combines economic growth and social harmony.”
Prime Minister Modi, along with Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah, will campaign in Karnataka to realize a “double-engine” government in which the Bharatiya Janata Party takes power in both New Delhi and Bengaluru. appealed for strength.
Ahead of the poll, Bharatiya Janata state governments abolished a 4% reservation under Affirmative Action employment quotas for minority Muslims and reassigned them to two other disadvantaged groups, but This is a move that is expected to appeal to Hindu nationalist supporters in the country. Muslims make up about 13 percent of Karnataka’s population.
One analyst said the result was a clear parliamentary victory, but much of the party’s gains appeared to come at the expense of the third party, the Janata Dal (secular party), not the BJP. pointed out.
“This is a clear victory for the parliament,” Bengaluru-based author and journalist Sugata Srinivasaraju said. “However, I extrapolate this and do not say that 2024 will inevitably be similar, as the BJP appears to have maintained its share of the vote.”
The parliament said Karnataka’s vote, like other upcoming state elections, would be a stepping stone to rebuilding its national foundations.
Additional report by Jotuna Singh, New Delhi
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