Karnataka Election Results 2023: Congress secures thumping victory, leading in 125 constituencies, BJP lags behind with 4 seats
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The Congress has zoomed past Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as per the latest reports, in Karnataka assembly election result 2023 and is now doing exceedingly well.
The party has now crossed the halfway mark and is leading in 125 constituencies winning nine seats according to the Election Commission (EC) while the BJP has so far won four seats and is leading on 63 seats.
Initially, the BJP was leading in 88 seats and the Congress followed closely with 80 seats, both parties in a tight competition in the first big election of the year.
JD(S) has also opened its account in the elections, but is crawling behind the Congress and the BJP leading in 24 assembly constituencies.
Karnataka voted in a single phase on Wednesday and recorded a 73.19 per cent voter turnout according to reports.
While the Chikkaballapura district recorded the highest voting percentage with 85.56 percent, state capital Bengaluru's southern division recorded the lowest of 52.33 percent.
"We will form the govt with a heavy majority, there's no doubt about it. Negative, divisive campaign of the PM did not work", Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said.
The Congress party workers have started celebrating in Delhi as the party maintains lead. The party has also called a legislators' party meet at 12 noon tomorrow. It has asked all MLAs to reach Bangalore tomorrow.
All eyes are now on whom the Congress will pick as the Chief Ministerial candidate with both state chief DK Shivakumar and senior leader Siddaramaiah in the queue.
Shivakumar earlier broke down and spoke about delivering on a promise to the Gandhis. Former CM Jagdish Shettar, who quit the BJP to join Congress after being denied to contest in the May 10 polls for the 224-member Assembly, was trailing in Hubballi-Dharwad Central by 35,000 votes.
Senior party leader P Chidambaram on Saturday congratulated the people of Karnataka for a "decisive verdict" and said they stood up to the "money and muscle power of the so-called double engine government" of the BJP.
"This election was more than an election to a state assembly. It was about upholding the fundamental values of the Indian Constitution and stopping the damage done by supremacist theories, discrimination and prejudice," Chidamabram wrote on Twitter.