Karnataka polls: Rahul Gandhi thanks people for voting for them

He also thanked his party workers for their support during the election.

In a day of dramatic change of political fortunes in Karnataka, the Congress has roped in the Janata Dal (Secular) to form an alliance government in the state after the prospects of the BJP suddenly nosedived in the later stage of the counting, even as it seemed initially that the saffron was heading for a clean sweep.

To keep the saffron brigade out of power in the southern state, the Congress adopted a strategy which was followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa and Manipur in 2017.

At 11 am on Tuesday, celebrations were taking place at the BJP headquarters as the party was all set to uproot the Siddaramaiah government to install its own in Karnataka.

But much like a T20 match, the political game turned around with the BJP’s gaining 104 seats in the 224 memeber Assembly, slipping below the majority mark (113) within an hour or so.

The distribution of sweets by the BJP leaders- Nirmala Sitharaman and Ravishankar Prasad- were substituted by an utter disappointment with the alteration of political arithmetic in the Karnataka assembly poll.

The Congress, which trailed the BJP by many seats in the state polls, quickly got in touch with former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s JD(S), which has managed 38 seats.

The Congress, which won 78 seats, did not delay in establishing connection with the JD(S) to discuss over the possible coalition government.

Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi contacted  the JD(S) leaders and offered Gowda’s son Kumaraswamy the Chief Ministerial post while the latter promptly accepted it.

The Congress’ effort suddenly reminded how the BJP, which appeared second in both Goa and Manipur state polls last year, managed to escalate to power by forging a post-poll alliance with other regional parties.