Karnataka polls: Congress plans to keep its flock together as victory signs emerge

Bengaluru: With the Opposition Congress on course to breach rival BJP's lone southern citadel Karnataka, the party is planning to shift its newly elected MLAs to a different location.

According to NDTV, the party is planning to shift its MLAs to Tamil Nadu and is in touch with the leadership of the ruling DMK. The elected Congress MLAs will be taken to Bengaluru by evening.

The Congress was striding forward with leads in 117 seats while the BJP was ahead in 75 in Karnataka, according to Election Commission of India trends, as votes were counted on Saturday for an election widely seen as a litmus test for both parties ahead of the 2024 parliamentary polls.

Political observers are also keenly watching who the party will choose to helm the government- Congress veteran and former CM Siddaramaiah or State unit President D K Shivakumar.

"My father should be CM for the interest of Karnataka," Siddaramaiah's son Yathindra said on Saturday.

Buoyed by the initial trends, Congress said the message given to the BJP was to stick to public issues that matter.

The opposition party marched ahead of the halfway mark, the latest Election Commission (EC) trends of counting of votes polled in the Karnataka Assembly elections showed.

Congress leader Pavan Khera said, "this is the message for the BJP that please stick to issues that matter to everyday life of people and don't try and divide India."

Alka Lamba, Congress spokesperson, told IANS, "We learnt from our mistakes... Results of Himachal a few months back, and the latest trends of counting for the Karnataka Assembly polls show that as issues of people were not getting resolved, they are voting for the grand-old party.