Here are the top developments from the Karnataka elections:

  1. The Congress secured a clear majority in Karnataka, winning 136 of the 224 Assembly seats in the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party won 65, while the Janata Dal (Secular) won 19. The Congress has received 43% of the votes polled in the elections. In terms of both vote share and number of seats, the Congress looked set to have won the biggest victory in Karnataka since 1989. The Congress itself had won the state back then with 178 seats and nearly 44% of the vote share. 
  2. After Saturday’s results, the BJP has lost the only state it was in power in southern India. Out of the 28 states and two Union territories with the legislature, the BJP is now in power only in 15. Of these, only seven are major states with populations of more than 1 crore. According to the 2011 Census figures, only 45% of India’s population is now ruled by a BJP government. 
  3. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge took a jibe at the BJP on Saturday evening, saying that the saffron party had aimed for a “Congress-mukt Bharat” – a Congress free India, but the voters have ensured a “BJP-free South India”. Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah told reporters that the results were a “stepping stone” for next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asserted that Karnataka has shown the country stands for love. Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar broke down on Saturday afternoon while telling reporters that he had assured the the Gandhi family of the party’s victory in the state.
  4. Conceding defeat, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the BJP will reorganise itself and make a comeback in the Lok Sabha elections. “We have not been able to make the mark, in spite of a lot of effort put in by everyone, including the prime minister and workers of the party,” Bommai told reporters. “We will do a detailed analysis as the results conclude. We will take these results in our stride.”
  5. Eight of the 22 ministers of the Bommai Cabinet faced defeat in the elections. The list includes Education Minister BC Nagesh who had introduced the controversial order to ban hijab in educational institutes in Karnataka.
  6. JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy has also accepted defeat, saying that the loss was not final. “I thank the voters for having voted to JD(S),” he said. “Neither for me nor my family electoral losses is not new. My father HD Deve Gowda, brother HD Revanna and I have all lost elections before. I will strive to build the party’s organisation.”
  7. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Congress for their victory in Karnataka. “I thank all those who have supported us in the Karnataka elections,” he tweeted. “I appreciate the hard work of BJP karyakartas [workers]. We shall serve Karnataka with even more vigour in the times to come.”
  8. Former Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar, who had ditched the BJP to join the Congress ahead of the elections, suffered defeat at his Hubli-Dharwad-Central seat. Mahesh Tenginakai, the candidate from the Hindutva party won the seat with a margin of 34,289 votes. Former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, who had also joined the Congress after quitting the BJP, won from Athani in Belagavi district.
  9. BJP national general secretary CT Ravi, a four-time legislator from Chikmagalur, lost to HD Thammaiah of the Congress. “Today’s loss in the assembly elections is our personal loss and not that of our ideology,” he said in a tweet.
  10. In the previous Assembly elections held in 2018, the BJP emerged as a single-largest outfit with 104 seats but fell short of the halfway mark of 111 seats. BJP’s BS Yediyurappa took oath as the chief minister but resigned before a trust vote on May 23. A coalition government led by  Kumaraswamy and supported by the Congress then ruled the state for 14 months. In July 2019, the government collapsed after several MLAs from the two coalition parties switched over to the BJP. Yediyurappa then took oath again as the chief minister but resigned on July 26, 2021. Bommai has been the chief minister since July 28, 2021.