The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday blamed Karnataka's ruling coalition partners Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) for its defeat in the state civic polls held across 22 districts.
"The BJP should have won more seats but we could not perform the way we wanted to because of the Congress-JD-S coalition," BJP state unit President B.S. Yeddyurappa told reporters here.
The party, however, is confident of winning a majority in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Yeddyurappa said.
"People's mandate is with the BJP and we are confident of a majority in the next year's general election," he added.
In the civic body polls held on August 31, the BJP won 929 seats, with a majority in seven districts including coastal regions of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, while the Congress won 982 seats with a majority in 10 districts including the northern region of the state.
The civic election verdict shows the BJP performed well in its traditional bastions of coastal districts while Congress retained its position in its strongholds of northern districts.
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The ruling coalition partner JD-S, on the other hand, won 375 seats getting a majority in its strongholds of Hassan, Mandya and Tumakuru districts.
--IANS
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