Raman Singh dubs Karnataka polls 'a historic win for BJP'

Kanker (Chhattisgarh) [India], May 15 (ANI): As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heads towards bagging a clear majority in Karnataka Assembly elections, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has dubbed it a historic win for the party.
"This is a historic win for BJP. I want to thank all the people of Karnataka for voting for us," Singh told ANI here.
As per the official trends, BJP is leading on 114 seats, and Congress in the second position is ahead on 55 seats. JD(S) is trailing further with a lead on 37 seats.
BJP is viewing Karnataka elections as a gateway into the South, and if Karnataka comes in its kitty, the party will have state governments in 22 states.
Remarking on Congress' probable loss of Karnataka, Singh said, "Now, there will be a Congress khojo abhiyan (Congress search project) in the country, who knows where it will be."
Since the 2014 general elections, the Congress party has been defeated by the BJP in over a dozen states, drastically shrinking its political footprint.
Counting of votes began at 8 a.m. for 222 out of 224 assembly constituencies in 58,546 polling stations in the state. The elections in two constituencies, Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, both in Bengaluru have been postponed earlier.
A total of 2,654 candidates, including 216 women candidates were in the fray for the Assembly Elections this year.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded 223 candidates, while the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) fielded 222 and 201 candidates respectively.
Out of the 224 seats, 36 of them are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), while 15 of them are for Scheduled Tribes (STs).
It may be noted that a party or an alliance needs 112 seats to form the government. (ANI)