"Not Happy With 135 Seats": DK Shivakumar Sets The Bar High For Congress

Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar has indicated dis-satisfaction with the whopping 135 seats won by the party in the assembly election held earlier this month. At a meeting with party workers in Bengaluru today, he said the Congress should "perform well in every poll from now on" -- setting better results as target in next year's general election.

"Let me confess you all something. I am not happy with the 135 seats we achieved in the assembly polls," Mr Shivakumar told party cadres.  

"Our focus needs to be in the right place and that is the upcoming general elections. The Congress should perform well in every poll from now on, and we all need to work hard. This is just a beginning and do not get lazy with just one win," added Mr Shivakumar, who took oath as Karnataka's Deputy Chief Minister along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah yesterday.

Karnataka has 28 Lok Sabha seats - the seventh largest number -- making it one of the key battleground states.

In the 2019 election, the BJP had won 25 of the seats, the Congress and HD Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal Secular had won one each.

The sole seat the Congress won was Bangalore Rural. The JDS had won in Hassan.

This time, with the Lingayat and the AHINDA votes behind it, the Congress is hoping for a better show. The AHINDA platform -- an old social combination of minorities, Other Backward Classes, and Dalits, had voted overwhelmingly for the Congress.The Lingayats, traditional supporters of the BJP, had also turned against it after it dropped their tallest leader, BS Yeddiyurappa, from the top post.

The BJP, while it won only 65 seats, has manage to keep its voting percentage intact -- 36 per cent. Its former Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai, has already indicated that the party will do a rethink on the causes of its defeat and double down ahead of next year's Lok Sabha election.