Bangalore:
HD Kumaraswamy will quit his seat as a Member of Parliament and is headed to the state to lead the Janata Dal (Secular) as Karnataka's main opposition party.
(Read: Highlights of the Karnataka election results)While the Congress gets a shot at ruling the state once again after a gap of seven years, the JD(S) has scripted the big surprise story in these elections. It has ended with 40 seats, the same as the outgoing BJP has managed to win.
Mr Kumaraswamy, who is the son of party chief and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, ruled out any alliance with the Congress if the latter does not make the halfway mark, the possibility of which now seems remote. "We will fight against Congress like we fought against BJP... We will sit in the Opposition; Congress will not come to our house, there are other small parties," said Mr Kumaraswamy, who as state party president, led the JD(S) campaign.
JD(S) spokesman Danish Ali said that while his party did all the hard work to highlight the ruling BJP's failings in the last five years, the Congress, which he said had been a "mute spectator" has gained from those efforts.
The JD(S) had a brief marriage with the BJP in 2006 in a ruling coalition before parting ways, and has since been a bitter opponent. The party before that, in 2004, had partnered with the Congress to form government which lasted till Mr Kumaraswamy engineered a divorce to ally with the BJP.