“Intangible impact”: Congress credits Karnataka elections victory to Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra

With Congress all set to assume power in politically-crucial Karnataka, the party on Saturday attributed the victory to Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi. Congress won an absolute majority in Karnataka on Saturday with the party crossing the halfway mark of 113 seats in the 224-member assembly.

According to the latest trends of the Election Commission of India, Congress has won 126 seats and is leading in 10 more seats. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won 60 seats and is leading on five others. Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) has won 19 seats. Independents have won two seats while Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha have won one seat each.

The Congress maintained a lead from the morning when counting began for the assembly seats in the fiercely contested election. Congress general secretary in-charge, Communications Jairam Ramesh said the result is a direct impact of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka, the intangible impact was unifying the party, revitalizing the cadre and shaping the narrative for the Karnataka elections.

“While this is the direct impact of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka, the intangible impact was uniting the party, reviving the cadre and shaping the narrative for the Karnataka elections. It was during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, from the many conversations Rahul Gandhi had with the people of Karnataka, that the guarantees and the promises in our manifesto were discussed and finalised,” tweeted Jairam Ramesh. He also said that people rejected BJP in Karnataka.

“The whole election campaign was about the issues of Karnataka. We did not make it a national election, we made this election for Vidhan Sabha. Congress’ win is PM Modi’s decisive defeat. This is because except for PM Modi, there was no other face. The issues we raised were related to the state. But BJP made the election campaign like a referendum for PM Modi. JP Nadda said that if you give a vote to Congress PM Modi’s blessings will not be with you. The campaigning by PM Modi was totally rejected by the people of Karnataka,” Jairam Ramesh told ANI. The Congress put up a table comparing the party’s performance in the 20 assembly constituencies covered during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

The list showed that the Congress, which had won 5 of these 20 seats in the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections, took a massive lead and led in 15 seats till 4 pm. The BJP, which had won nine out of 20 seats last in the last elections, was ahead in two. JDS, which bagged six seats in 2018, was leading in three. Rahul Gandhi-led ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ entered Karnataka on September 30 last year. The yatra covered 511 km in the state in over 20 days.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra, which started in Kanyakumari on September 7 last year, concluded on January 30 in Srinagar after covering 3,970 km, 12 states, and two Union territories. Karnataka went to the polls on May 10 for the 224-member state assembly and saw a record polling of 72.68 per cent. A party needs 113 seats to get the majority.PTI