Fusion secular votes makes BJP surge in Karnataka

2008-05-25 09:09:18 - BJP head office in New Delhi celebrating its success with firewroks due to its emergence in Southern India state of Karnataka.All India Congress party needs introspection for state election which are due in states of Delhi,Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan. Lingyat votes plus agglomerate of caste votes in favour of BJP made its task easier to surge ahead in this state election.Role of RSS contributed to this surge.

The Congress today virtually conceded defeat in Karnataka assembly polls, saying getting an absolute majority was not absolutely possible because of the three-way split in votes.Latest counting results exhibits party ahead ,INC 74,JDS 36,BJP 112 seats and independents 2.

Union Minister and AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Prithviraj Chavan said the party may not be able to reach the half-way mark.

The reason, he said, was that with the JD(S) doing well in a limited way, secular votes were divided and that affected the Congress.

Asked whether it was possible for the party to align with the JD(S), he said these decisions would be taken at the level of the Congress Working Committee and the party high command.

He also blamed the delayed delimitation and defective voters' list as reasons that contributed to the Congress' bad performance.

As per trends available after four hours of counting for 224 seats, the BJP was also leading in 101. The Congress and the JDS was ahead in 71 and 29 seats respectively. Others and Independents led in nine segments.

Congress won two and the JDS bagged one.

BJP's Narasimha Naik bagged the Shorapur seat, beating his nearest Congress rival Raja Venktappa Naik by 4,000 votes, while former minister B Sriramulu defeated Ramprasad of Congress in Bellary Rural (Reserved) by over 25,000 votes. In Sullia (SC), BJP's S Angara humbled Dr Raghu of Congress by over 5,300 votes.

Former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy of JDS established an unassailable lead of 34,158 votes against his rival political novice Mamata Nichhani of Congress.

BJP chief ministerial nominee B S Yeddyurappa, former Chief Minister N Dharam Singh (Congress) and KPCC President M Mallikarjun Kharge were among others who maintained comfortable leads over their respective rivals.

BJP MP Ambareesh (Srirangapatna), former deputy Chief Minister M P Prakash of the Congress (Harappanahalli), R V Deshpande, who is looking for a seventh win from Haliyal are the prominent candidates who were behind. PTI