Bengaluru, May 23 (IANS): Buoyed by the initial trends indicating a landslide victory for the BJP in Karnataka, its senior leader R Ashok on Thursday sought the resignation of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy for his Janata Dal-Secular (JD(S)) facing a rout in the Lok Sabha elections with its pre-poll ally Congress.

"Accepting defeat gracefully, Kumaraswamy should resign as his party lost the moral right to continue along with the Congress, which are trailing behind in 24 of the 28 parliamentary seats across the state," Ashok told reporters at the party's state unit office..

According to the latest counting trends, an upbeat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in 23 seats, the Congress in three and the JD(S) in one.

An Independent (Sumalatha Ambareesh), backed by the BJP, is also leading in Mandya over JD(S) contestant Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of H.D. Kumaraswamy and grandson of JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda.

"JD-U's Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde had set an example by resigning when his party suffered defeat in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, owning moral responsibility," Ashok recalled.

In the 2014 general elections, the BJP won 17 seats, Congress nine and JD(S) two.