Indications and outcomes of the landslide victory of the Indian Congress Party in the Karnataka state elections NEW DELHI – The regional elections held in the southern state of Karnataka, last Wednesday, resulted in a landslide victory for the Indian Congress party at the expense of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been ruling the state since 2019. Today, Saturday, the results of the state Legislative Council elections were announced, as the Congress party won 136 seats in the 224-seat parliament, and it needed at least 113 seats to win the majority that qualifies it to form the next government in the state. While the Bharatiya Janata Party won only 64 seats, after its leaders expected it to win the majority of seats. The polls conducted by channels, newspapers and research centers, following the polls last Wednesday, unanimously agreed that the Congress Party would win a clear majority in these elections, but BJP leaders laughed at these expectations. Huge effort These results came despite great efforts by the Bharatiya Janata Party to win these elections in the state, which has a population of about 61 million. India's Prime Minister Nandra Modi himself stayed in the state several weeks before the vote, where he addressed 19 public meetings and led 6 election rallies. This election campaign cost the state treasury about $25 million. Modi declared at every meeting that his party would return to power with more seats than before. The results of these regional elections are an indication of what may happen in the Indian general elections that will be held in May 2024. Reject hate politics The results of the recent elections reflect – according to observers and analysts – a clear rejection of the policy of hatred of Muslims pursued by the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Modi himself. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi commented that the results "confirm that the people of Karnataka abhor the politics of hatred and hatred pursued by the BJP". "The people of Karnataka have rejected the negative policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party," said Congress spokesman Pawan Khera. This election was originally between 3 parties: the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party since August 2019, the Congress party, and the secular Janata Dal party, a local party that enjoys support in the south of the state. Part of the Congress party's celebration after the preliminary results of the elections in Karnataka (Reuters) BJP loses the southern states The loss of the Indian People's Party in Karnataka means a lot, because it has not yet been able to gain a foothold in the states of southern India, including the state of Karnataka, which it was accused of having ruled after the previous elections in 2019 by "buying off some deputies or by allying with small parties" to form its government. This government was also accused of being the most corrupt Indian government, especially after an official statement by the Karnataka Contractors Federation a year ago, stating that the government "takes bribes at a rate of 40% for government contracting." Tricks to attract Hindu voters The Bharatiya Janata Party tried to attract Hindu voters in various ways, including announcing the abolition of the 4% allotment for Muslims in government jobs and school seats in the state since 1994, and also announcing that if he was re-elected, he would implement the Unified Personal Status Law (i.e. the abolition of the Personal Status Law for Muslims), and he also mentioned He will implement the nationality law in the state to remove the "intruders", referring to Muslims. The Bharatiya Janata government in Karnataka state has previously raised the issue of the hijab to prevent veiled female students from studying and taking exams while wearing the hijab, which led to the deprivation of about 100,000 Muslim students in the state from taking exams last year. The party leaders also launched campaigns against halal meat, calling for it to be banned because – as they said – it forces Hindus to eat certain meat, which benefits Muslim merchants. Likewise, extremist Hindus continued to raise allegations that Muslims were practicing a plan with foreign (Gulf) funding to attract Hindu women to marry in order to increase the number of Muslims among the population, and thus establish an Islamic government in India in the future. The party also continued to wage war on the memory of the great Indian freedom fighter Tipu Sultan, who was the first Muslim ruler who fought the English colonialists and was martyred while fighting them in 1799, and only after that the rule was established in India. The Bharatiya Janata Party has been erasing the memory of this king by fabricating lies that he was an enemy of the Hindus, and that he had forced the Hindus to convert to Islam by the sword and demolished their temples, so that they have recently been promoting the saying that Tipu Sultan killed the Hindus and not the English, although the facts of his killing are recorded in documents and history. And the Bharatiya Janata also enacted a law to prevent the slaughter of cows in the state on the pretext that the cow is sacred to the Hindus, while allowing its slaughter in the adjacent state of Goa, which is also governed by the Bharatiya Janata. Hindu organizations affiliated with the party are also trying to seize mosques and shrines, claiming that they were built on the ruins of Hindu temples that were demolished by Muslims during their long rule in the region. These are untrue claims, but repeating them thousands of times makes them acceptable. Observers believe that the Bharatiya Janata government in the state was a failure and corruption, and it had no choice but to resort to polarization on a sectarian basis. The state of Karnataka is inhabited by about 61 million people, 13% of whom are Muslims (Al-Jazeera Net) The Congress Party breaks its silence For the first time in years, the Congress party broke its silence about Hindu extremist organizations, and declared during its recent election campaign that if it wins and manages to rule in the state, it will ban the Hindu militia "Bajrang Dal" (meaning the army of Bajrang, the mythical monkey god), which made Modi He repeats in his speeches that the Congress party wants to imprison the monkey god Bajrang! The Congress party has benefited this time from two important factors, one of which is the frequent talk about the corruption of the Bharatiya Janata government. The Congress Party also benefited from the long journey that its leader, Rahul Gandhi, made from southern to northern India at the end of last year. He revived his party's contact with the masses, and restored a kind of trust between him and the people. The impact of Karnataka elections on the upcoming elections Elections will soon be held in several states, including Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and their results, along with the results of the Karnataka state elections, will be a compass for the general elections that will be held in May 2024, and they are very important and a test for BJP at the level of the central government. If the opposition parties unite and decide to nominate a unified candidate in each constituency, the BJP will not be able to win. Observers believe that the victory of the Congress party in the state of Karnataka will encourage opposition parties to unite to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Karnataka state elections, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party lost to the Congress party, are seen as a test of the popularity of political parties, and a measure of what the situation will be like in the Indian general elections that will be held after about a year.

Want to get worth reading articles in your email? want to catch what's going on in the world?

Email Address

Subscribe

Leave this field empty if you're not a robot: We do not spam but sent you only important news stories 🙂