From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru / Hyderabad, Dec 3: The Congress party has suffered setbacks in the Hindi heartland States of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh while proving its popularity in the southern State of Telangana, said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday.
In his reaction to the media persons on the assembly election results, the chief minister said victory and defeat are part of the democratic process and serve as a lesson to all parties to reassess their performance to find out what went wrong. "We are not worried at the results,’’ he said.
Siddaramaiah claimed that the Congress government’s successful implementation of the guarantees in Karnataka and similar guarantee promises in Telangana as well as the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were the main reasons for the party’s tremendous victory in Telangana.
At the same time, the voters of Telangana have rejected the corrupt and despotic rule of Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader Chandrashekar Rao as well as the secret understanding of BJP and BRS, he said.
The chief minister said the money power and communal polarisation politics of BJP were the main reason for the party’s victory and defeat of the Congress in the Hindi heartland states, which could not be matched by Congress despite giving a tough fight.
Growing dominance of Cong in South
The spectacular victory of Congress party in Telangana proves the growing clout and dominance of Congress in the South, said Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC president D K Shivakumar, who had actively campaigned for the party.
Shivakumar told media persons in Hyderabad that the party’s rank and file were responsible for the Congress victory in Telangana.
Shivakumar said the people of Telangana have rejected the corrupt rule of BRS chief Chandrashekar Rao and have rejected the BJP-BRS deal.
Bommai hails victory as vindication of Modi
Meanwhile, BJP leader and former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai termed the election results and the setback suffered by the Congress in the North as a ‘’clear warning’’ to the Congress in Karnataka that its ‘’guarantee politics’’ will not work.
Bommai claimed that people in Karnataka were fed up with the failures of the guarantees in the State and the corruption in transfers and posting and warned that the BJP would launch a state-wide agitation against the Siddaramaiah regime after the legislature session.
The BJP leader also mentioned that the election results in the four states "have been the indicator for the coming Lok Sabha polls and it has increased the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’’ and said the results of these four states Assembly elections have been termed as semi-finals as it has come ahead of the crucial parliamentary polls.
The results of the Assembly elections had given a clear message to the coming Lok Sabha polls. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has got a two-thirds majority and a clear majority in Rajasthan and Chattisgarh. In Telangana, the tally of BJP has increased from one to ten.
The BJP leaders like Modi, BJP National President J.P. Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan must be congratulated for the BJP's performance in the four states, Bommai said.