 "Bhupesh Baghel")
After trends showed Congress well ahead of the halfway mark in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday took a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party over the 'Bajrang Bali' row.
The Bajrang Bali row had taken centre stage during the election campaigns in the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly polls, the counting of votes of which is underway.
"You can see with whom Bajrang Bali stands. Bajrang Bali's 'gada' hit corruption on its head and BJP was done," he said.
He said that the defeat of the BJP is the defeat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the party sought votes keeping his image in front.
"Karnataka election result is as per our expectations. The Prime Minister sought votes by keeping himself in the front. So, this is PM Modi's defeat," he said.
Former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath also waded on the Congress victory and alleged that BJP will try to "strike a deal" with the MLAs.
"It is certain that Congress will form the government in Karnataka. BJP will attempt to strike a deal with MLAs of other parties and independent candidates," he alleged.
Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also came out hard against BJP and said that the people of Karnataka have thrown the party out.
"PM Modi under his dictatorship cancelled the membership of Rahul Gandhi, just because he spoke against corruption. Today, because of that corruption only, the people of Karnataka threw BJP out. It shows that it is not the government, but people who decide the mandate," he told ANI.
The counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security across the State.
The exit polls predicted a hung assembly with some showing Congress returning to power with a majority. A few exit polls also showed BJP ahead.
The fiercely contested election saw high-pitch campaigns from the political parties.
The polling for the seats were held on May 10 with a voting percentage of 72. 68 per cent in voting for 224 seats. A party needs 113 seats to get a majority.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
