Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday reacted to his party winning the Karnataka Assembly elections and lauded the efforts of all the party workers.
"All our leaders have worked unitedly and people have voted for our 'guarantees'. Once 'High Command' sends observers, other processes will follow. This is the victory of Janata Janardhan," AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge said.
“People themselves have got up and supported us, they have voted for us furiously against the bad administration. This shows voters of Karnataka are awakened. Despite the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi), Home Minister (Amit Shah), dozens of Ministers, Chief Ministers of other states camping here, and despite manpower, money and muscle being used, people have unitedly voted for Congress,” AICC chief added.
"I thank the people of Karnataka for giving a huge mandate to Congress. We will uphold their belief in us. We will implement all the welfare schemes we have announced in our manifesto. I thank Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, and Sonia Gandhi who campaigned even when she wasn't well," Kharge added.
The Congress party declared on Saturday that it is now certain that it has won the Karnataka assembly elections and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "lost" because the BJP has made its election campaign a "referendum on the PM." The leads indicate that the Congress is likely to win the elections.
As votes were counted in an election widely regarded as a litmus test for both parties ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, the Congress was moving ahead with leads in 117 seats and the BJP was leading in 75 seats in Karnataka, according to trends from the Election Commission.
"As the results firm up in Karnataka it is now certain that the Congress has won and the PM has lost. The BJP had made its election campaign a referendum on the PM and on the state getting his 'ashirwaad'. That has been decisively rejected!" Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet.
He stated that Congress campaigned in these elections on local issues such as unemployment, food and livelihood security, price rise, farmer distress, electricity supply, and corruption.
"The PM injected divisiveness and attempted polarisation. The vote in Karnataka is for an engine in Bengaluru that will combine economic growth with social harmony," Ramesh said.
It should be mentioned here that the state witnessed a single phase of voting on May 10, whereas, the counting of votes took place on May 13. Notably, the term of the 224-member Karnataka Assembly will be ending on May 24. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that more than 9.17 lakh first-time voters participated in the elections in Karnataka.
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