Will sit in opposition if no majority: BJP

With the Bharatiya Janata Party poised to emerge as the single largest party in the Karnataka elections, the party on Sunday reiterated it would "sit in the opposition" rather than tie up with Janata Dal-Secular in case it fails to reach the magic figure of 113.

"We said it before the election that we will sit in the opposition bench if we are not able to reach the magical figure of 113 and we still stand by it," Karnataka BJP president Sadananda Gowda said.

Gowda, however, said the dissidents within the JD-S are welcome to join the BJP. "If they want to break away and join us, how can we stop them," the senior BJP leader said.

While early election trends show that the BJP might just be able to reach the magic figure of 113 out of 224 seats in the Karnataka assembly, the party might also fall short by a few seats. But Gowda was confident of the crossing the mark. "It is certain that we will form the government. We will get 113-117 seats," the state BJP president said.

With the BJP doing well in rural areas which were primarily strongholds of both the Congress and JD-S, Gowda attributed its rise in these areas to the recent delimitation process. "We have been able to get 5-7 per cent more seats in the rural areas because of the delimitation process," Sadananda Gowda said.