NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday conceded defeat in a crucial regional election in Karnataka, losing its sole bastion in southern India.
\nThe vote in the state, which is India\u2019s technology hub and home to 65 million people, was the first of a series of crucial state polls seen as setting the tone for the general elections due in April and May 2024, when Modi will seek a third term.
\nThe BJP had been in power in Karnataka since 2019 and campaigned hard to hold on to it \u2014 the only one out of southern India\u2019s five states that was under its rule.
\nAs the ballots were counted, it became clear that the opposition Congress party had won an overwhelming majority in the state, and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai admitted the defeat.
\n\u201cIn spite of a lot of efforts put in by the prime minister and the BJP workers, we have not been able to make the mark,\u201d he told reporters.
\nFor Congress, the win is a major boost to its morale. The party has been on the margins of Indian politics since the rise of Modi\u2019s nationalist BJP in 2014.
\nCongress leader Rahul Gandhi \u2014 a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which has given India four prime ministers \u2014 has been seen as the main opponent to Modi\u2019s rule. In March, he was convicted of defaming Modi and excluded from parliament.
\nGandhi told reporters in New Delhi that the party \u201cdid not fight this battle using the language of hate\u201d and fought it with love instead.
\n\u201cPeople showed to the world that they prefer love,\u201d he said.
\nThe BJP\u2019s overwhelming loss is seen as a \u201ctrailer for the 2024 general elections\u201d and would galvanize opposition parties ahead of next year\u2019s parliamentary vote, according to Prof. Shashi Shekhar Singh, a political scientist from Delhi University.
\n\u201cThe outcome is also a big boost to the morale of the opposition Congress party and other opposition parties who are working for some kind of consensus to take on the BJP unitedly and give a tough fight to Modi in the 2024 general elections,\u201d he told Arab News.
\n\u201cKarnataka has given a strong message to the BJP and Prime Minister Modi that the communal division and politics of polarization will not work in front of the real issues people are facing today.\u201d
\nFor political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, the poll showed that such a style of politics is being rejected and that Congress could capitalize on it to rebuild its position in Indian politics.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a fairly emphatic rejection of the politics of the BJP, and Congress has been given a decisive mandate,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe victory of Congress will strengthen the position of the party within the opposition, and it might emerge as a fulcrum of opposition unity, provided the victory does not go to their head and they start thinking that they have become supreme.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday conceded defeat in a crucial regional election in Karnataka, losing its sole bastion in southern India. The vote in the state, which is India\u2019s technology hub and home to 65 million people, was the first of a series of crucial state polls seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-330956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n