Rahul Gandhi's Epic Karnataka Defeat Broken Down In 10 Points

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has delivered a huge win for his party today, proving that his popularity remains undiminished in an election that was seen as a primer for the national election next year. Karnataka today voted out the Congress government of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah; the party now runs just two states in the entire country; the BJP governs 21 of 29. The result is a colossal failure for Rahul Gandhi, who was promoted to Congress president a few months ago.

1.  Karnataka has 224 seats. The BJP, according to leads at 11 am, will win 118 - more than enough to form a government on its own. The majority mark is 112.
2.  Karnataka has maintained its long-standing habit of not supporting the incumbent; no party has won a successive term in Karnataka for 30 years.
3.  The decisive BJP victory is a strong rejoinder to a retinue of opinion and exit polls which forecast a fractured result, and said HD Deve Gowda's party, the Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S), would play king-maker.
4.  Prime Minister Modi campaigned exhaustively in Karnataka in the final leg of the election to ensure his party reclaimed the southern state.
 5.  The BJP's presumptive Chief Minister is BS Yeddyurappa, 75, who was forced to quit as head of the government in 2013 on account of grave charge of corruption.  He quit the BJP in anger, only to return to it a year



later.
6.  The Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, failed completely in exploiting dissatisfaction over a lack of jobs for young people and rising fuel prices along with farmer unrest.  Mr Gandhi, 47, has led his party to a series of colossal electoral losses since 2014; Karnataka is the party's first defeat since he took over in December from his mother, Sonia Gandhi, as Congress chief.
7.  Chief Minister Siddaramaiah made a concerted effort to break the BJP hold over the Lingayats, a powerful and prosperous community, by recommending that they be recognised as a minority religion, which they have demanded for years.  The BJP accused him of divisive politics; the Lingayats have stuck by the party, shows today's result.
8.  Mr Siddaramaiah was noted for a coalition acronym-ed as "AHINDA", which wove together minorities including Muslims, backward castes and Dalits. However, Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SC/STs), who decide as many as 62 of 224 seats, have broken with the Congress.
9.  Their move to the JDS will be attributed in part to its alliance with Mayawati, who is a Dalit icon.
10.  Rural distress in Karnataka has also surged over the last few years and a severe drought as well as a centuries-old dispute with neighbouring Tamil Nadu was decided only in February by the Supreme Court. Southern Karnataka, where farmers rely on the Cauvery water, has severely cut back on its support for the Congress.