Partial election results from India have indicated a victory for the Congress party, granting them power in the critical state. This win was achieved over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, only a year before the next national elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Modi was recently ousted from Karnataka, which was their only administration in the Southern region.
As of Saturday, Congress has secured 114 seats in the 224-seat assembly, enough to form a governing majority and is also leading on 22 more seats. Thus, giving them a substantial advantage according to the Election Commission website.
Over 60 million people call Karnataka home, which is comparable to the population size of the UK. Its capital city Bengaluru is known as India’s tech centre and was voted earlier this week.
In the past six months, the Congress party has had two major victories against BJP. Most recently, they won in Himachal Pradesh in December and prior to that, they unseated Modi’s party again in another state. The poll findings appear to have given a boost to the opposition, who are hopeful of joining forces in order to take on Modi in the next general election. If successful, it would result in him being Prime Minister for a third consecutive term.
In the past few years, Modi’s party has been making attempts to make the most of their presence in Karnataka, where tensions between Hindu and Muslim communities have increased following the BJP’s decision to ban girls from wearing headscarves as part of their school uniform.
