'Not PM Modi's Defeat': Basavaraj Bommai Says 'Anti-incumbency' Behind BJP's Outster in Karnataka

Outgoing Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai accepted anti-incumbency in the state as one of the reasons for BJP’s defeat

A day after Congress decimated the Bharatiya Janata Party, winning 136 seats, former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, while speaking of the defeat, pointed out that anti-incumbency, along with other multiple factors, led to he defeat of the saffron camp in Karnataka.

“This cant be Modi’s defeat. Modi is not limited to Karnataka, he had just come here for campaigning. The leadership of Congress has failed in the whole nation, they won this state but have lost in the whole nation. Just because they won this state can we say they have won the national leadership? Anti-incumbency in certain constituencies is also a reason, hence we have decided to analyse these constituencies,” said ex-CM Bommai.

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.