Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot with Rahul Gandhi
Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan and a prominent member of the Congress party, responded to the results of the Karnataka assembly elections by attributing the his party's strong performance to Rahul Gandhi's pan-India foot march "Bharat Jodo Yatra".
His tweet on his party's success in Hindi, when translated to English, reads: "The atmosphere that was visible in Karnataka during Mr. Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra is clearly visible in the election results in Karnataka today. Under the leadership of UPA Chairperson Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Congress President Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, and Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi, Congress leaders did a great campaign. Karnataka has chosen the politics of development by rejecting communal politics. This will be repeated in the upcoming Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana assembly elections as well."
The 3,570-km "Bharat Jodo Yatra", which began in Kanyakumari on September 7 and ended in Srinagar on January 30, gave the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi numerous chances to communicate with locals. This march on foot, according to him, was among his life's "most beautiful and profound experiences."
Meanwhile,a resurgent Congress appeared headed for a simple majority in Karnataka and on course to wrest power from the BJP in a morale-boosting victory ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections.
As per the latest trends, the Mallikarjun Kharge-led party was leading in 119 constituencies, well above the 113-mark needed for a majority in the 224-member House, elections to which were held on May 10.
The BJP, which won 104 seats in the previous Assembly elections, was ahead in 74 segments, and the JD(S), led by former Chief Minister H D Deve Gowda, in 24. Others were leading in seven segments.
While Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai (Shiggaon), former CM Siddaramaiah (Varuna), state Congress President D K Shivakumar (Kanakapura), and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy (Channapatna) are among the prominent faces leading in their respective segments, Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil (Ramanagara), BJP national General Secretary C T Ravi (Chikkamagaluru), and former CM Jagadish Shettar of the Congress (Hubli-Dharwad Central) are trailing.