In a bid to save their power in the State, Congress offered an alliance to the Janata Dal (Secular) Party. The JD(S) has agreed to the Congress’ offer to collaborate with JD(S) working President H. D. Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister.
The Congress desperately need to hold their power in Karnataka and approached JD(S) for an alliance. Sweetening the deal, the Congress offered the JD(S) candidate to become CM instead of Siddaramaiah.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “We have had long telephonic conversations with both Mr. Deve Gowda and Mr. Kumaraswamy. And they have accepted. Hopefully, by this evening, we will go together to the Governor and give the letter to form the government.”
He further added, “Today evening, hopefully, we will get more clarity. As trends are showing as of now, our numbers put together are more than BJP. This has been decided in consultation with state and Central leaders. More details will be given soon.”
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah spoke to the media and stated the party was willing to support JD(S) as it was the only option. The BJP has won 104 seats while the Congress won 77 seats and JD(S) have 39 seats. Two of the seats were won by independent candidates.
The counting of votes for the Karnataka Assembly Elections began today. There are three chief minister candidates hoping to gain power in the State. They are the present CM from Congress Siddaramaiah, the BJP candidate B. S. Yeddyurappa and the Janata Dal (Secular) candidate H. D. Kumaraswamy.
A party requires 112 seats out of the 222 to form the Government in Karnataka. Since 1985, no political party has regained power after their first term.
The voting for the 222 seats was held on Saturday and one of the Constituency’s polling was canceled after the BJP candidate suddenly passed away. This election is very important for the Congress as it is one of the four states under their control. If Congress loses this election bouncing back in the General Elections will be difficult. Apart from Karnataka, the Congress rule in Punjab, Puducherry and Mizoram.
