That the Opposition waited with bated breath for the outcome in Karnataka was clear as its elated and buoyant leaders, right from TMC and BSP chiefs Mamata Bannerjee and Mayawati to TDP and AAP supremos Chandrababu Naidu and Arvind Kejriwal, lost no time in hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah and terming the BJP’s loss as a “victory of secular democratic forces”.
The Opposition is seeing it as the beginning of the BJP’s decline in the run-up to the general election next year. The BJP’s failure against a Congress-JD (S) combine will also give a further boost to the possibility of arch-rivals in the Opposition camp mending fences to take on the saffron party’s might. It has already tasted success when the BSP and SP joined hands to defeat the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh bypolls and there are efforts to forge alliances of parties led by regional satraps.
Congratulating the JD(S)-Congress combine, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who was the first to come out with her reaction, said it was a victory of regional forces. “Democracy wins. Congratulations Karnataka. Congratulations DeveGowda Ji, Kumaraswamy Ji, Congress and others. Victory of the ‘regional’ front,” she tweeted.
Banerjee along with Telangana Chief Minister KC Chandrasekhar Rao has mooted the idea of a Federal Front to take on the Narendra Modi government in the 2019 lok Sabha elections.
Her Andhra Pradesh counterpart, Chandrababu Naidu said, “Everyone will be happy about it. The Prime Minister and BJP president tried to deride democracy. What message did they give by encouraging the corruptIJ BJP brought back (tainted mining baron) Janardhan Reddy to the forefront and did politics.
BSP chief Mayawati termed the BJP’s failure a big blow to the saffron party. “I think what they had been planning all along for 2019 has failed, they will now have to rethink and alter their strategies,” she said.
Delhi chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal too hit out at the BJP as he tweeted, “BJP’s attempts to subvert democracy have miserably failed in Karnataka. BJP’s lust for power through foul means stands completely exposed. Will BJP learn any lesson nowIJ India’s judiciary has risen to the occasion and has safeguarded our democracy.”
The left parties too came out hard and strong. The CPI(M) demanded Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala’s resignation as his decision to invite BJP to form the government “proved to be wrong”.
The governor’s decision to invite BJP to form the government was “malafide” and “against his constitutional mandate,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said in a tweet.
“If the governor of Karnataka has any shame left, he should submit his resignation as well. The Union ministers sitting in Bangalore, facilitating and enabling corrupt deals, are equally culpable,” he said.
The CPI termed the BS Yeddyurappa’s resignation as Karnataka Chief Minister without facing a trust vote a “victory of secular democratic forces”. “It’s a victory of secular democratic forces. The BJP never had the numbers, but the governor invited them to form government. The party was given time for horse-trading. Karnataka showed that the BJP’s downslide has started,” CPI leader D Raja said.