Oppn hails massive Cong win in K'taka polls

Press Trust of India

Karnataka is 'beginning of the end' for BJP, says Mamata

Kolkata: The Kar nataka electoral results are the “beginning of the end” for BJP, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed on Saturday. Banerjee also asserted the moral of the Karnataka assembly poll results is that people “want plurality” and that “no central design to dominate” can repress them.

Congratulating people in Kar nataka for their mandate in favour of change, the TMC supremo said that “brute authoritarian and majoritarian” politics has been vanquished. She forecast that the safforn party would lose in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, too, where it faces off with the Congress, which steamrolled the BJP in Karnataka in results announced on Saturday.

"This is the beginning of the end of the BJP before 2024 Lok Sabha polls. People have voted against the arrogance and intolerance of the BJP. “I think the saffron party will also lose the upcoming elections in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh,” Banerjee told news persons gathered in front of her house, after seeing off actor Salman Khan who had come to pay her a visit.

Earlier in the day, she had tweeted her ebuliant comments after it became apparent that the BJP, her rival in Bengal, was losing in the southern citadel of Karnataka. "My salutations to the people of Karnataka for their decisive mandate in favour of change!! Brute authoritarian and majoritarian politics is vanquished!! “When people want plurality and democratic forces to win, no central design to dominate can repress their spontaneity : that is the moral of the story, lesson for tomorrow," Banerjee said.

As late as March this year, the fiery TMC chief had said she would maintain equidistance from both the BJP and Congress only to change her stance after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified.

BJP won't hold polls in J-K, post K'taka: Omar

Srinagar: National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah on Saturday said there is "no way" the BJP will have the courage to "allow" assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir after its performance in the Karnataka polls.

The Congress, which has won 74 of the 224 assembly seats in Karnataka so far and is leading in 62, is striding towards victory, while the BJP has won 34 and is ahead in 30, according to the latest trends on the Election Commission website.

"Now there is no way BJP will have the courage to allow assembly elections to take place in Jammu and Kashmir any time soon #KarnatakaElectionResults," Abdullah, the vice president of the NC, said in a tweet. Non- BJP parties, including NC, PDP and Congress, in Jammu and Kashmir have been demanding assembly elections in the Union Territory. The last assembly polls in the erstwhile state took place in 2014.

In 2018, the then Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the assembly after the BJP withdrew support to the Mehbooba Mufti led PDP-BJP alliance. Jammu and Kashmir was put under the Cenral rule and in 2019.

MP: Cong chants 'Jai Bajrang Bali' after K'taka win!

Bhopal: Congress workers chanted 'Jai Bajrang Bali' and 'Jai Shri Ram' and danced to drumbeats here on Saturday afternoon to celebrate the party's victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls. Some of them also carried pictures of Lord Hanuman as party workers and leaders assembled at Indira Bhawan, the state Congress office, and distributed sweets, threw gulal powder and burst firecrackers.

After the Cong ress manifesto in Karnataka promised to take action against extremist organisations and referred to the PFI as well as the Bajrang Dal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that any action against the Bajrang Dal was tantamount to an insult to “Bajrang Bali”, another popular name of Lord Hanuman, and raised chants of “Bajrang Bali Ki Jai” at rally after rally.

Assembly elections are due in the BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh by the end of this year. “The BJP government in Karnataka that thrived on 40 per cent commission has ended.

Tactics of BJP failed : Delhi CM Kejriwal 

New Delhi: AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday congratulated the Congress for its victory in the Karnataka assembly elections, and said the BJP should now realise that its tactics do not work anymore. He, however, sought to downplay AAP's dismal performance in the elections, saying a time will come when it will win in Karnataka as well.

According to the Election Commis - sion website, AAP appeared to have drawn a blank, securing just 0.58 per cent of vote