Karnataka to rescue of Congress, again

This refers to the editorial, K’taka lessons for 2024 polls (HT, May 14). The BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made all-out efforts to break the 40-year record of no party winning back-to-back assembly elections in Karnataka, and failed, losing its only foothold in the South. For the Congress, which hadn’t won a single large state since 2018, the thumping victory has come as a muchneeded shot in the arm ahead of three assembly elections later this year and the big one, the Lok Sabha poll in mid-2024. And, perhaps a personal achievement for recently disqualified MP Rahul Gandhi, who spent three weeks of his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka. Encashing on a strong antiincumbency mood created on prices and graft, the Congress won 136 seats, comfortably sweeping past the majority mark of 113. The Congress’s strong showing has left the JD(S), the third player in the state’s politics, blank. Karnataka has once again lived up to its pattern of coming to the Congress party’s rescue at critical junctures. It helped Indira Gandhi return to the Lok Sabha with a win in the

Chikmagalur byelection in 1978 and in the same year, its assembly poll win launched a strong base for a comeback at the Centre. In 1999, when the party lost two consecutive general elections, Sonia Gandhi chose Bellary, besides Amethi, to make her electoral debut. In 1977, when the Congress was rejected in the North over Emergency, Karnataka stood by it. Saturday’s outcome is no less than a lifeline for the Congress as it will reassure that it remains a viable option, brighten Rahul Gandhi’s credentials as a challenger to Modi.

Sanjay Chopra Mohali