BJP set for bigger mandate in 2019: Fadnavis on K'taka polls

As the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the Karnataka Assembly polls today, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said it was set for a bigger mandate in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and lauded party chief Amit Shah for "converting" the people's trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi into votes.

"The wave of hope created by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now been transformed into a wave of faith and the people have expressed it through their mandate," he told PTI.

Fadnavis said the poll outcome in the southern state was a "mandate of faith" in the prime minister and the credit for it should go to Shah's election strategy.

"My congratulations to B S Yeddyurappa and the people of Karnataka. This has set the course for a bigger victory of the BJP and the NDA in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls," he added.

The chief minister further said that looking at the "unprecedented" poll triumphs of the BJP under Modi, it was clear that the prime minister had become the most people-friendly leader since Independence.

"I congratulate Amit Shahji for the way he plans (fighting) elections and helps convert the trust in Modiji into votes," he said.

According to Election Commission figures, the Congress has won 78 seats, the JD(S) 37 and the BJP 103 in Karnataka and the saffron party is leading in one more seat.

The halfway mark is 112 in the 224-member Assembly. Voting for two seats is yet to take place.

Like all the state polls since he assumed power in New Delhi, Modi had helmed the BJP's adrenaline-charged campaign in Karnataka, despite the party having declared Yeddyurappa its chief ministerial candidate, while Congress president Rahul Gandhi had spearheaded the campaign of his party.

Modi had launched a blitzkrieg on May 1, addressing a number of rallies in his bid to wrest the key southern state, which Shah had dubbed as the party's "gateway to the south", from the Congress.

The prime minister had addressed at least three rallies every day when he was in Karnataka, or else, interacted with the workers of the BJP's different frontal organisations through the "Namo" app.