RSS cadres helped us enormously in Karnataka: Ram Madhav

As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heads towards a possible victory in the Karnataka Assembly Elections, party's general secretary Ram Madhav on Tuesday accredited the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) cadres for enormously helping the party in Karnataka.

Speaking to ANI, Madhav said, "I would give credit to Karnataka's leadership and cadres right from Yeddyurappa down to party cadres especially to the parivaar. The Sangh parivaar cadres have helped us enormously. When I analysed certain regions, we realized that in coastal Karnataka we completely swept off the region."

Counting of votes for the election is presently underway, and as per the data by Election Commission, the BJP has won four and is leading in 104 seats, while Congress follows second with victory on one seat and lead on 69 seats.

Madhav expressed foremost gratitude to the people of Karnataka giving a decisive mandate in BJP's favour.

He also accredited the leading trends to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah who campaigned extensively across the state.

"Prime Minister's hard work played off. About Amit Shah, everyone knows he is a master craftsman when it comes to election strategy and he has burnt a lot of midnight oil there," Madhav said.

Taking a jibe at the Congress party that may lose another state to the BJP, Madhav said, "Let Congress and Rahul Gandhi do some serious introspection but unfortunately they never do that."

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.

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.