Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party on Saturday lost the lone state government in India’s relatively prosperous south, election results in Karnataka showed, in a boost to an otherwise struggling leftist opposition. next year’s general election.
The Indian National Congress, which governed India for most of its time since independence before being sidelined by the rise of Mr. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, won most of the seats in the local assembly elections in Karnataka.
Home to more than 65 million people and India’s cash-rich technology hub, Karnataka is the only southern state where Mr. Modi managed to lead a government, its ideological thrust found less acceptance in that part of the country than Mr. .Modi’s stronghold in northern India.
With the majority of votes counted, the Congress party is expected to win at least 135 of the 224 seats in the assembly, putting it in a position to easily form the government.
In the final parts of the campaign for the state, which saw a strong voter turnout of about 73 percent, Mr. Modi personally pushed himself into the race. He held about 20 rallies there, including several where supporters showered him with flower petals as he drove past in an open car.
Making the election about the famous Mr. Modi is a last-ditch effort, after the party’s usual efforts to polarize voters along religious lines – such as banning Muslim girls from wearing headscarves as part of their school uniform – it seems no. to divert voters’ attention from allegations of local corruption by BJP members.
“We could not make the mark despite a lot of effort put in by everyone, right from our chief minister,” said Basavaraj Bommai, the state’s BJP chief minister, conceding defeat on Saturday.
While the victory in Karnataka could be a shot in the arm for the national opposition, which is trying to bounce back after being bullied by Mr. Modi in the 2019 and 2014 national elections, analysts warn that the Congress will still face a formidable opponent in Mr. Modi when he seeks a third term early next year.
The incumbent rarely wins in Karnataka, where control has alternated between the Congress and the BJP in recent years. In local elections, caste rivalry and immediate governance issues, such as corruption, loom large. Local preferences do not necessarily translate into votes for the National Assembly in India’s parliamentary system, which determines who the prime minister is.
The popularity of Mr. Modi remains steadfast, with many voters in Karnataka – who voted against his local leaders over rising prices, corruption and polarizing politics – still expressing love for him personally.
At the national level, Congress is struggling to match Mr. Modi.
Rahul Gandhi, the most popular Congress leader and often touted contender, built momentum by walking the length of India, covering 2,200 miles in four months.
But as it appears that he removed the tag of Mr. Modi is a legitimate dynasty, and presents himself as a reliable leader around whom a coalition of skeptical regional allies can come together to challenge Mr. Modi, the BJP has blocked him with a legal challenge.
An old and questionable blasphemy case has been revived in recent months, and a judge in Mr. Modi’s state of Gujarat handed Mr. Gandhi the maximum sentence, disqualifying him from his parliamentary seat. Mr. Gandhi’s party called the case a political conspiracy akin to match-fixing, and fought to keep him out of jail.
Aarti Jerath, a political commentator in New Delhi, said that while voting patterns in local elections did not immediately translate into support for national elections, the Congress party would draw lessons from its victory in Karnataka – in empowering local leaders, and focusing the campaign on bread-and-butter issues rather than making it a popularity contest against the formidable Mr. Modi.
“This is a big morale booster for the Congress – first victory in a major state after a series of defeats,” he said.