Congress says North East election results will not affect Karnataka polls
The incumbent Congress government has won 21 seats of 60 in its bastion Meghalaya, but it may not be enough to keep the BJP at bay.
The Congress on Saturday released a statement saying the election results in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura will not affect polls in Karnataka. The Bharatiya Janata Party unseated the Left after 25 years in Tripura, Meghalaya has a hung Assembly, and the BJP alliance and Naga People’s Front stand equal in Nagaland. However, the BJP is likely to form coalition governments in both Meghalaya and Nagaland.
“The BJP leaders are unnecessarily projecting it as a big victory,” Karnataka Congress President G Parameshwara said in a statement. “At some places, Congress has won while in other places it has lost.”
BJP leaders took the opportunity to say the results reflect that the Congress will be voted out in Karnataka soon. Assembly elections are expected to be held in the state this summer.
State BJP President BS Yeddyurappa said “the writing on the wall is clear” and that the Congress would lose. “It is now clear that the people of Karnataka will also reject the Congress for its corruption, collapse of law and order and divisive politics being unleashed by [chief minister] Siddaramaiah.” Other BJP leaders like Union Minister Ananthkumar and Rajya Sabha legislator Rajeev Chandrasekhar echoed this.
The Congress currently rules two states and one Union Territory – Karnataka, Punjab and Puducherry. They are the incumbent government in Meghalaya.