As election result trends point to a comfortable victory by the Congress in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said the BJP’s attempts to polarise the polls proved futile. CM Baghel added that the BJP had called for a ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ and now south India is ‘BJP-mukt’.“First we won Himachal Pradesh and now Karnataka. From Himalayas to oceans, Congress has achieved success. The BJP used to call for ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ but now south India is BJP-mukt,” CM Baghel said addressing the media. Earlier in the day, incumbent Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai conceded defeat in the assembly election ahead of the final result.
“We have not been able to make the mark. The Congress has done it successfully… Once the results come we will do a detailed analysis. As a national party, we will not only analyse but also see what deficiencies and gaps were left at various levels. We take this result in our stride,” the Karnataka chief minister told reporters.The ‘Bajrang Bali’ took a centre-stage during the election campaign in the run-up of the assembly elections. Taking a swipe at the right-wing party earlier, CM Baghel said, "You can see with whom Bajrang Bali stands. Bajrang Bali's 'gada' hit corruption on its head and BJP was done," he added.Congress is set to return to power in Karnataka as the party is now leading in over 136 seats, well past the majority figure of 113. Meanwhile, the BJP is seeing a significant reduction in its seat share with leads in just 70+ seats. HD Deve Gowda-led JD(S), which won 37 seats in 2018, is now ahead in 25 seats.Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot earlier said Karnataka has dismissed the ‘communal politics’ in the state and opted for the politics of development and the similar trend will be repeated in the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.