Congress Begins Victory Celebration As It Crosses Majority Mark In Karnataka

The celebration in the Congress camp has already started as it leads in over 110 seats in the Karnataka Assembly polls.

The counting of votes for the 224-member Assembly seats is underway in 36 centres across the state. The early trends have shown that Congress is likely to get a majority.

The party appeared to stretch its margin over the BJP with almost a seven per cent lead over the ruling party in vote share.

According to Election Commission data, the Congress is leading on 115 seats, BJP on 73 seats, Janata Dal (Secular) on 29, Independents 3 and Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha on one each. Trends were available for 219 of 224 seats in the state. The Congress has a vote share of 43.1 per cent while it is 36. 2 per cent for BJP and 12.8 per cent for JD(S). The halfway mark in assembly is 113.

The visuals shared by ANI show Congress workers distributing 'ladoos' at AICC HQ in New Delhi. In another clip, party workers are seen bursting firecrackers while holding the portraits of Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Dr BR Amebedkar.

The trends have clearly indicated that the Congress is returning to power with a bang which is expected to lift the spirit of the party workers after it registered poor performance in the state polls held in North Eastern states.

However, the exit polls had predicted a hung assembly with some showing Congress returning to power with a majority. A few exit polls also showed BJP ahead.