Karnataka continues to occupy prime space in national politics, with BJP and Congress sparring over who had the right to form government

BJP president Amit Shah declared here on Monday that the mandate in Karnataka was decidedly anti-Congress and therefore, there had been nothing inappropriate in his party staking claim to form the government in the State as it had emerged as the single largest party.

“If we had not staked claim to form a government, it would have been against the mandate of Karnataka people,” he said.

Mr. Shah was addressing a press conference on a day when Karnataka Chief Minister-designate H.D. Kumaraswamy was in the city.

‘Anti-Congress vote’

“The mandate in Karnataka was against the Congress; their Chief Minister lost one seat; many of their Ministers also lost; their tally came down heavily. In areas where the BJP’s presence was not strong, the Janata Dal(S) defeated the Congress,” the BJP leader said.

“This is not a confused mandate as is being portrayed; it is a decidedly anti-Congress vote. That is why we say that the Congress has entered into an unholy alliance with the Janata Dal(S). The Congress has found a new way of portraying defeats as victory, portrayals which have nothing to do with the ground reality.”

“Only Congress and JD(S) are celebrating — people of Karnataka are not,” Mr. Shah said.

Claiming that the BJP had not indulged in horse trading, Mr. Shah said the Congress — by tying up with the JD(S) — had sold off its entire stable.

Had JD(S) and Congress MLAs not been corralled into five-star resorts, the “people of their constituencies would have advised them to support the formation of a BJP government.”

Refusing to speculate on how long the coalition would last, Mr. Shah said, “Mr. Kumaraswamy has a lot of faith in astrologers. I also believe in them, but feel that democratic processes have their own time and pace.”

“I’m not an astrologer to predict which way Janata Dal(S) MLAs will go in future. They need to be freed from these five star resorts first,” he said.

No threat in 2019

The BJP leader dismissed suggestions that a joint front of the Congress and regional outfits could pose a serious challenge to the party’s prospects in 2019.

“In 2014, too, the same people were fighting us; we prevailed then and we will win an absolute majority again,” he said.

Asked why the BJP was invited the Governors of Goa and Manipur to form a government despite not being the single largest party, Mr. Shah said in the two States, the Congress had been tardy and the BJP had staked claim with enough support.

“The Congress, despite being single largest, slept away, did not stake claim; we were ready with numbers. What was the Governor supposed to do,” he said.

‘A positive’

He said that a “positive side effect” of the Karnataka verdict had been that the “Congress is now starting to have faith in constitutional bodies like the Supreme Court, Election Commission and they even like EVMs.”

Mr. Shah hoped that this trend would continue even when the Congress lost and was unable to form a government, taunting the party which had been critical of the Election Commission and the Supreme Court’s functioning in recent times.

He said the Congress lawyer lied in the Supreme Court that BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa had sought seven days’ time from the Governor to prove his majority in the House.