Union Minister of State and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shobha Karandlaje on Saturday, May 13, said that the people of Karnataka have “blessed” the Congress, and that the BJP will work in the Opposition to highlight people’s issues. Shobha’s statement comes amid counting of votes in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections, with Congress acquiring a comfortable lead in many constituencies.
Speaking to reporters at the BJP state headquarters in Bengaluru, Shobha said, “The state's people have blessed Congress. We'll work in the Opposition (vipaksha) in the upcoming days and we'll uphold people's issues. All the best to Congress. Your previous wrongdoings and insult to Hindus… work without doing those and work for everyone,” she said.
A few minutes ahead of Shobha’s statement, incumbent Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that despite best efforts by the BJP, the party was unable to reach the mark. “Once all the results come, we'll do an analysis. As a national political party, we'll not just analyse and see what the gaps and deficiencies are, but we'll improve upon it. We'll organise the party and come back in the Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
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%.
