Bengaluru: With the Lok Sabha election results sending the JDS-Congress government in Karnataka to the political ICU, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has said the leaders of both parties will sit together and deliberate on the reasons behind the defeat.
A resurgent BJP won eight seats and was leading in 16 of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka where the vote count has been underway for the two-phase polling held on April 18 and April 23.
In contrast, the ruling Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) are facing a humiliating defeat. The results are particularly humiliating for the Deve Gowda family with the former PM losing in Tumkur and his grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy losing to BJP-backed Sumalatha Ambareesh in Mandya. The saving grace for the family was Gowda’s other grandson Prajwal Revanna who won from Hassan.
The BJP candidates were declared victorious in Bengaluru North, Bellary (ST), Bidar, Chikkaballapur, Haveri, Koppal, Shimoga and Uttara Kannada.
At the time of publishing this report, the saffron party was also leading in Bagalkot, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Belgaum, Bijapur (SC), Chikkodi, Chitradurga (SC), Dharwad, Davanagere, Dakshina Kannada, Gulbarga (SC), Kolar, Mysore, Raichur (ST), Tumkur and Udupi-Chikmaglur.
The Congress was leading in Bangalore Rural and Chamarajanagar (SC) in the old Mysore region.
Both Congress and JD(S) had declared before the results were out that a bad outing at the ballot would mean the beginning of the end for the alliance. Voicing the unease in the coalition, seven-time MLA and former minister R Roshan Baig had launched a scathing attack on the party, calling state Congress president Dinesh Gundurao a “flop show” and former chief minister Siddaramaiah an arrogant leader.
Responding to the threat, Congress leader Brijesh Kalappa too said the results were bound to have an effect on the coalition.
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