BJP humbles Congress in Karnataka elections

AFTER decades of waiting, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday scripted history as it dramatically bagged top honours in the Karnataka election to rule a state in south India on its own strength for the first time, reports Hindustan Times.

In the process, the BJP dealt a major blow to the Congress, which also suffered huge defeats in all three Lok Sabha by-elections for which results were declared Sunday. BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani promptly claimed that 2008 would prove to be a year of change in politics for India, where a new parliamentary election is due next year.

It was the failure to regain power in Karnataka and, worse, the loss of its former bastion to the BJP in a decisive way that stunned the Congress. One leader frankly admitted he had no idea what had gone wrong while another, speaking off the record, said party president Sonia Gandhi too was to blame for the mess in Karnataka.