By IANS,
Bangalore : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday was all set to emerge as the single largest party in Karnataka bagging more than 100 of the 224 seats but could fall short of the half-way mark by a few seats.
The BJP’s victory march in the south stunned the Congress, which had gone all out to regain power in the state, for a long time its bastion.
The Janata Dal-Secular was the biggest loser as its hopes of being a kingmaker again like in 2004 were dashed. It was leading only in 35 seats as against the 58 it had won four years back.
Congress leaders were already talking of a tie-up with the JD-S but its leader and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy ruled out any alliance with the Congress or the BJP.
The BJP is hopeful of taking help from independents to reach the magical figure of 113 to form a government.
The BJP, which had emerged as the single largest party with 79 seats in 2004, campaigned aggressively with senior leaders L.K. Advani and Sushma Swaraj and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi spending several days in all the three phases of balloting.
In contrast, Congress president Sonia Gandhi spent less than a day each in the three phases while her son and general secretary Rahul Gandhi skipped the first phase.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed only one meeting — in Bangalore.