By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, May 13 (IANS): Maharashtra's opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and other parties on Saturday erupted into celebrations after the Karnataka Assembly election results that saw the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party get its worst-ever poll drubbing and the Congress sweeping to power there.

Leading the charge, a grinning Shiv Sena-UBT President Uddhav Thackeray said that what has started in Karnataka will "now be continued in Maharashtra" where the BJP will be thrown out.

"We have thrown them (BJP) out of Karnataka, they will be ousted even from Maharashtra. The people have not supported the BJP's politics of violence and religion and now it has been removed from the entire southern part of India," Thackeray said.

State Congress President Nana Patole said that Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' has changed the political direction in the country and this is reflected in the Karnataka outcome.

"Karnataka has defeated the BJP's corrupt double-engine of Delhi's lies and 40 per cent loot, the bigotry, authoritarianism and caste-religion politics, misusing the ED, IT, CBI, filing fake cases against political rivals, etc. The Congress contested on people's issues like inflation, unemployment, rampant corruption, etc, which have been accepted by the people," he said.

Nationalist Congress Party chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said that Karnataka has "permanently slammed shut the doors of entire south India on the BJP" by electing the Congress.

"The Karnataka people have jettisoned religion, caste, corruption and embraced secularism and development by choosing the Congress with full majority. It is a personal defeat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and victory of all secular forces," he said.

Shiv Sena-UBT's national Spokesperson Kishore Tiwari said that "Karnataka spells the beginning of the end of Modi era, and this BJP-bulldozing trend will snowball even in 2023-2024, and all credit for the debacle goes to the hostile leadership of Modi-Shah and their communal campaign aimed at destroying social harmony".

Deputy Leader of Sena-UBT Dr. Raghunath Kuchik said "BJP's Lanka has been burnt" in the entire south with the Karnataka results, and its repercussions will be felt all over India and in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and they cannot blame anyone else for their rout.

Ex-CMs and senior Congress leaders Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan lauded the people of Karnataka for their wise decision to reject the BJP outright along with its politics of caste-religion, money-muscle power and dictatorial attitudes.

"The divine stick makes no sound. People wanted development, jobs, peace, security and inclusiveness. But the BJP played politics in the name of God and religion which is a purely personal matter. The masses stood behind the Congress's forward-looking manifesto," said Ashok Chavan.

Prithviraj Chavan said that Karnataka people were extremely unhappy with the BJP's rule for four years as nobody bothered about them, but just before the elections, there was a jamboree of big-bang mega-events and inaugurations, though "Modi's charisma seems to have faded and jaded".

"This will be reflected in the other three states Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh's upcoming elections and will have repercussions in Maharashtra and Lok Sabha polls in 2024," he said.

State Samajwadi Party President Abu Asim Azmi said that "the drama of hatred" didn't work and the people of Karnataka have cleared their state of the atermites of communalism'.

"The BJP had usurped power on the basis of lies and hatred, and now the people understand the difference between the politics of division and development. This heralds an era of change even for other states," said Azmi.

Congress state General Secretary Sachin Sawant termed it as "a victory of the divisive hate-politics of BJP and acceptance of Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge's politics of love and inclusivity" by the people of Karnataka.

All India Kisan Sabha President and CPI-M leader Dr. Ashok Dhawale said that the people of Karnataka have given their verdict against the BJP's misrule, corruption and the communal agenda pursued by PM Modi himself during the poll campaign, plus the strong disenchantment of the masses leading to an anti-incumbency factor that helped Congress get a decisive victory.

Patole added that Rahul Gandhi spent 21 days in Karnataka during the BJY, crossed 51 assembly seats of which 39 are won today, "thus, changing the face of national politics".

Meanwhile, Congress Working President Naseem Khan, Rajan Bhosle, Hussain Dalwai, Pramod More, Vinay Rane, Zeeshan Ahmed, Muzaffar Hussain, and others celebrated with 'dhol tasha', distributing sweets, and raising slogans at the state party headquarters this afternoon.