Cong gets majority, BJP suffers HUMILIATING defeat in Karnataka

The Congress on Wednesday secured a simple majority in the Karnataka assembly after a gap of seven years, decimating the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

In good tidings for the party currently battered by numerous scams, the Congress recaptured its old southern fort by a comfortable majority of 121 seats, nine more than the required half-way mark in a house of 224 members.

Hit by the exit of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and allegations of corruption during its tenure in the first government in the south, the BJP and the JD-S won 40 seats each.

The SP has won one seat while 'Other' candidates have won 21 seats.

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The 'Others' include the fledgling Karnataka Janata Party floated by Yeddyurappa who achieved his immediate task of damaging the BJP.

Yeddyurappa won from Shikaripura by over 15,000 votes.

In the elections five years ago, when the BJP stormed to power for the first time in a southern state on its own, the party had won 110 seats against Congress's 80 and JD-S's 28.

Polling was held in 223 segments, with the one in Periyapatna in Mysore district put off to May 28 following the death of the BJP candidate.

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With the Congress all set to form the government, the race for the chief minister's post has heated up, with the choice now appearing to narrow down between Union Labour and Employment Minister M Mallikarjuna Kharge, a veteran leader from the state, and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah.

BJP's performance in its own strongholds was pathetic -- reflected in the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Shimoga and Bellary -- where its defeat was near complete.

Former BJP minister B Sriramulu's party BSR Congress also secured four seats and ate into the BJP's votes, as the ruling party stood mauled.

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C P Yogeeshwara, who quit the Jagadish Shettar-led BJP ministry towards the end of the tenure of the government and contested on a Samajwadi Party ticket, won from Channapata, defeating JD-S candidate Anitha Kumaraswamy, wife of the party's state unit president H D Kumaraswamy, by nearly 6,500 votes.

Yeddyurappa, who broke away from the BJP and formed the regional outfit last year, got re-elected from Shikaripura in Shimoga district.

While he succeeded in decimating the BJP, it was a disappointing electoral debut for his nascent outfit and his hopes of playing a king-maker have been dashed.

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