BENGALURU: After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost the Karnataka Assembly elections, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday tendered his resignation to Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot.
After submitting his resignation to the post of Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai said, “I have tendered my resignation and it has been accepted by the governor. We accept the decision of people of Karnataka with all due respect. We will organise our party. The Lok Sabha election is coming up and we will be involve ourselves in the preparation. This is not an indicator for the Lok Sabha election, there is a difference between Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The Lok Sabha polls will be based to national issues”.
“Last time, we secured 104 seats and hence, we won 25 Lok Sabha seats. and those elections are fought on national issues. …I take responsibility for this debacle. There are multiple reasons for this. We will find out all the reasons and strengthen the party once again for Parliament elections,” he said earlier
Bommai said the BJP will emerge victorious in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Earlier in the day, he had conceded defeat as trends showed a massive Congress surge. Bommai won with a margin of 35,978 votes from Shiggaon constituency, but many of his ministerial colleagues lost.
According to the Election Commission of India, Congress won 136 seats, pushing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power in the only southern state it ruled and boosting its own prospects for the electoral battles ahead. The BJP managed to win 65 seats. The Janata Dal Secular (JDS) bagged 19 seats. Independents have won two seats while Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha won one seat each.
The Congress maintained a lead from the morning when counting began for the Assembly election. With the Congress’ emphatic victory in the Karnataka elections on Saturday, ousting the BJP from power in the only southern state ruled by it, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the election results marked a “BJP-free South India”.
Karnataka went to the polls on May 10 for the 224-member state Assembly and saw a record polling of 72.68 per cent. The results were declared on Saturday. (With Agency inputs)