Karnataka elections: As Congress crosses absolute majority, Mallikarjun Kharge holds key meeting in Bengaluru

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 13 (ANI): As Congress gained an absolute majority in Karnataka assembly elections on Saturday, party president Mallikarjun Kharge held a meeting with top leaders of the party from the State.
Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar and former chief minister Siddaramaiah were present at the meeting held at Kharge's residence.
DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah also felicitated Kharge as Congress sweeps the Karnataka polls.
Pertinent to mention, the Karnataka election was a major victory for Congress after Kharge assumed as party president earlier this year.
Congress won an absolute majority in Karnataka on Saturday with the party crossing the halfway mark of 113 seats in the 224-member assembly.
According to the latest trends of the Election Commission of India, Congress has won 131 seats and is leading in five more seats. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won 61 seats and is leading on four others.
Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) has won 19 seats. Independents have won two seats while Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha have won one seat each.
The Congress maintained a lead from the morning when counting began for the assembly seats in the fiercely contested election.
Notably, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar defeated JDS candidate B Nagaraju in the Kanakapura constituency by 1,22,392 votes.
Former deputy chief minister and Congress leader G Parameshwara defeated JDS PR Sudhakar Lal by 14,347 votes.
Congress general secretary, Communications Jairam Ramesh said people rejected BJP in Karnataka.
"The whole election campaign was about the issues of Karnataka. We did not make it a national election, we made this election for Vidhan Sabha. Congress' win is PM Modi's decisive defeat. This is because except for PM Modi, there was no other face. The issues we raised were related to the state. But BJP made the election campaign like a referendum for PM Modi. JP Nadda said that if you give a vote to Congress PM Modi's blessings will not be with you. The campaigning by PM Modi was totally rejected by the people of Karnataka," Jairam Ramesh told ANI.
Congress' HD Thammaiah defeated BJP's CT Ravi in Chikmagalur, by a margin of 5,926 votes.
Congress leader Suresh Baabu defeated State Minister and BJP candidate JC Madhu Swamy in Chikkanayakanahall by a margin of 10,042 votes. In Chikkaballapur seat, Congress' Pradeep Eshwar defeated State Minister and BJP candidate K Sudhakar by a margin of 10,642 votes.
Former union minister and Congress leader AK Antony said, "The clear message is that it is a victory of secular forces against hate politics. The national message is if the secular voters can unite, they can easily throw out the Modi government in 2024 election."
"In one of the speeches in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi made a light comment. Only for that, a national leader who got elected by more than 4 lakh votes was disqualified from Lok Sabha and thrown out of his house. Karnataka's people did not like it," he added.
Congress' BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan defeated former Bengaluru Police Commissioner and BJP candidate Bhaskar Rao, by a margin of 53,953 votes, in Chamrajpet.
Karnataka went to the polls on May 10 for the 224-member state assembly and saw a record polling of 72.68 per cent. A party needs 113 seats to get the majority. (ANI)