BJP single largest party; JD(S), Cong combine have numbers

New Delhi/Bengaluru: The BJP emerged as the single largest party on Tuesday but fell nine seats short of a majority in Karnataka where the Congress dramatically backed third-placed rival JD(S) for a post-poll alliance to keep the saffron party out of power.

All eyes are now on Governor Vajubhai Vala who will have to decide whether to call BJP to try to form the government or go with the JD(S)-Congress combine, which together have a clear majority in the 224-member Assembly.

Elections were held for 222 seats on May 12 while polling for the remaining two will be held later.

Both sides rushed to meet Vala, their vehicles slowly cutting through the throngs of party workers and supporters assembled outside the Raj Bhavan gates, and staked claim to power.

Addressing BJP workers in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who undertook a vigorous campaign, hailed the party's win in Karnataka as "unparalleled and unprecedented".

Modi on Tuesday asserted that his party would not allow the state's development journey to be trampled upon.

Attacking those for spreading "lies" that the BJP is a party of north India despite it forming governments in non-Hindi speaking states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Assam among other states, Modi said people of Karnataka had given a befitting reply to those with such a "distorted" mindset.

The BJP bagged 104 seats, a gain of 64, while the Congress notched 78, a loss of 44 seats, though its vote share was nearly two percentage points more than the saffron party.

The JD(S) secured 37 seats, down by three from its previous tally.

In a roller-coaster ride for BJP, it initially appeared that the party was set to return to power after a five-year hiatus with a resounding majority. But at the end of counting of votes, it came tantalisingly close to 113 needed to form the government.

Karnataka was the only major non-BJP ruled state, and the party offices had reverberated with jubilation in the morning when initial trends put it ahead.

Several BJP and Congress leaders rushed to Bengaluru from the national capital.

The swift political manoeuvring by Congress in reaching out to JD(S) showed that it had learnt its lesson after the debacle in Manipur and Goa where it failed to form the government despite being the single largest party because of BJP's canny moves.

Congress Leaders Siddaramaiah, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjuna Kharge along with JD(S) state Chief H D Kumaraswamy met Vala and submitted a letter seeking an opportunity to form the government.

Soon after Congress declared its support to JD(S), Kumaraswamy wrote to the governor informing him that he had accepted the offer to be the chief minister

However, BJP's chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa accused Congress of trying to grab power unfairly.

Since the Congress and JD(S) did not have a pre-poll alliance, it remains to be seen if he invites Kumaraswamy to form the government.

At least ten ministers fell by the wayside as they lost their seats in an anti-incumbency wave.

Siddaramaiah himself lost by a huge margin of 36,042 votes in his traditional constituency of Chamundeshwari in Mysuru to JDS' G T Deve Gowda.

He, however, managed to scrape through in Badami in north Karnataka, where he won by a slender margin of 1,696 votes after a see-saw battle against BJP's B Sriramulu, a close associate of the mining baron Reddy brothers.

Yeddyurappa won the Shikaripura seat by a margin of over 35,000 votes while Kumaraswamy won convincingly in both Channapatna and Ramanagara. See inside