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‘Won't blame EVM’: Assam CM Himanta Sarma after BJP's Karnataka election rout
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asserted that the Congress victory in Karnataka elections will not foil BJP’s success in the 2024 general polls.
After Congress romped home with 136 seats in the Karnataka assembly elections, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday took to Twitter to acknowledge the BJP’s defeat. The humbling verdict will be accepted without pinning the blame on factors such as electronic voting machines (EVMs), he added. Sarma also wrote that the party reflects upon its losses and moves forward with the learnings.
“We always accept the verdict of the people with humility. We do not blame EVM or any other external factors for our defeat, but instead, we introspect and learn from our past. I am confident that @BJPKarnataka, accepts the defeat with grace and will continue to work for the great people of Karnataka,” he tweeted.
He also asserted that the Congress victory will not thwart BJP’s success at the centre for the third consecutive time in the 2024 general elections."The opposition is taking this win as a straw to hold on to in the ocean, but it will have no impact in the future," news agency PTI quoted him during an event at Bihaguri in Assam's Sonitpur district.
Read | What the Karnataka results mean for 2024 Lok Sabha polls
The senior BJP leader added that the Congress win was not a surprise as it was in power prior to the 2014 general election when BJP won under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sarma, one of the star campaigners in Karnataka, said that he had realised that BJP will not perform well in the state.
Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday resigned as Karnataka chief minister, hours after BJP’s rout despite a high-decibel poll campaign headlined by bigwigs including PM Modi, home minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda in the state.
The Congress won 136 of the state’s 224 assembly seats, the first time in a decade that a party has crossed the halfway mark in the state.While most exit polls had predicted a loss for the BJP in Karnataka, the party suffered a massive plunge in its vote share compared to the 2018 elections, losing its sole southern citadel.
Except in 2004 and 2018, Karnataka has followed a three-decade old political tradition of voting out the incumbent government since 1985.
