With the Congress gaining a lead in as many as 136 seats in the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections, the party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday, May 13 promised a “transparent, accountable, people friendly and welfare oriented government” in Karnataka. “This is truly the victory of the people of Karnataka. They have voted for their progressive future, their welfare and social justice. With folded hands, we thank them for putting their trust in us,” he said.
Kharge said that the Congress party workers, state leaders, and AICC office bearers on the ground worked extremely hard to ensure the victory in the assembly elections. He further thanked former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi. “The Indian National Congress once again reiterates its solemn commitment to fulfil the aspirations of 6.5 Cr Kannadigas. A transparent, accountable, people friendly and welfare oriented Govt will be formed by the Congress party,” Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted.
The Indian National Congress once again reiterates its solemn commitment to fulfil the aspirations of 6.5 Cr Kannadigas.
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) May 13, 2023
A transparent, accountable, people friendly and welfare oriented Govt will be formed by the Congress party.
Reacting to the election results, former Chief Minister and the current Opposition leader Siddaramaiah said that the results were a mandate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda. “The PM came to Karnataka 20 times, no PM in the past campaigned like this,” he said. People of Karnataka are politically mature, Siddaramaiah said, adding that there was hate politics but people here are not tolerating this. He pointed out that BJP did not give a single seat to Muslims or Christians.
Siddaramaiah also said that the outcome of this election can be seen as a stepping stone for the party to the Lok Sabha elections scheduled in 2024. “I hope all non-BJP parties come together and see that BJP is defeated. I also hope that Rahul Gandhi becomes the Prime Minister of the country,” he said.
As per the latest trends at 2.30 pm by the Election Commission of India, the Congress is leading in 137 seats, BJP in 62, JDS in 21. The Karnataka Assembly election was held for a total of 224 constituencies, with 36 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and 15 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes on May 10. The state has a total of 5,24,11,557 electors, out of which 5,23,63,948 are general electors. A total of 2,613 candidates contested the elections, out of which 2,427 were male, 185 were female, and one was a transgender person. This time, Karnataka witnessed a record voter turnout of 72.67%.