'Stupendous Success': Rajnath Singh on Karnataka election result

Minister of Home Affairs in India, Rajnath Singh, on Tuesday, conveyed his congratulations to the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Karnataka unit president, B. S. Yeddyurappa, for what he termed as a 'stupendous success' in the state assembly elections.

"Spoke to State Unit President Shri @BSYBJP and congratulated him on BJP's stupendous success in Karnataka assembly elections," tweeted Singh.

In another tweet, he also gave a shout-out to all the BJP workers, writing, "I also congratulate the hardworking BJP karyakartas, who worked tirelessly to ensure this unprecedented victory in Karnataka. I also thank the people of the state on giving a decisive mandate to us."

Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah for their political acumen and leadership skills, he said, "BJP's massive victory in Karnataka assembly poll is a testimony to our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's visionary and astute leadership and the organisational abilities and acumen of our party president Shri @AmitShah . Congratulations to both of them on this historic win."

Earlier today, with BJP being on the horizon of victory in the elections, several party members had glorified the poll results, with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of Law and Justice of India, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh were not shying away from praising both the result and the party.

As per the latest trends, the BJP is in the pole position to form an independent government with 106 seats, with Congress languishing behind with 76 seats, JD-S ahead in 36 constituencies, and two seats won by other parties.

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.