Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 13: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday greeted the Congress for their victory in the Karnataka Assembly elections and wished the party well in meeting people’s aspirations.
“Congratulations to the Congress Party for their victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls. My best wishes to them in fulfilling people’s aspirations,” the PM wrote in a tweet.
“I thank all those who have supported us in the Karnataka elections. I appreciate the hardwork of BJP Karyakartas. We shall serve Karnataka with even more vigour in the times to come,” he said in another tweet.
The Congress is headed for a big win and the party leader Rahul Gandhi said “I want to thank the people of Karnataka, Congress workers and leaders and all those leaders who worked in the State.” He added that “In the Karnataka elections, there was strength of crony capitalists on the one hand and the power of poor people. Poor defeated the crony capitalists. This will be repeated in all other elections. Karnataka has shown that people of the country loves mohabbat and defeated hate.”
The Congress leader said “I want to congratulate the people of Karnataka. Kharge ji and I had made promises of five guarantees and we will fulfill these promises in the first meeting of the state cabinet.”
Amidst the Congress rush for victory, the defeat of a closely-watched heavyweight stands apart in this stellar performance by the party. Jagadish Shettar, a former Chief Minister, has been a talking point ever since he switched over from the BJP to the Congress in the run-up to the elections. A prominent Lingayat leader, Shettar this time as a Congress candidate lost to the BJP’s Mahesh Tenginakai by nearly 30,000 votes in the Hubli-Dharwad Central assembly segment.
A six-time MLA, Shettar joined the Congress last month after he was denied a ticket by the BJP to contest from Hubli-Dharwad Central. The veteran politician had then said he left the BJP because of “ill-treatment.” Following the switchover, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said Shettar’s entry into the Congress would power the party to a thumping victory in the southern state.
The BJP, however, had said Shettar would fail to clinch a victory and the party proved correct. Hitting out at the veteran leader, former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, Karnataka’s tallest Lingayat leader, had said Mr Shettar had “made a mistake.” “We had promised him Rajya Sabha membership and we would make him a minister at the Centre. Amit Shah himself spoke to Shettar. I think he made a mistake leaving the party. We wholeheartedly supported him almost every time,” Yediyurappa had said.