Congress in pole position after counting of nearly 50 percent of votes, Gandhi's make a grand comeback

The Congress party looked set to win a majority in the Karnataka assembly polls after nearly three hours of counting of votes covering all the 224 assembly seats in the state. The Congress, according to official ECI data, was in the lead in 114 seats in a legislature where the simple majority is 113 seats at 11 am."The Congress has established a lead as per our expectations. We are expecting over 120 seats. We will come to power on our strength," the former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said in an initial reaction in Mysuru on the trends.The Congress has obtained a vote share of 43.2 percent as against the BJP's 36 percent. The Congress has leads in 114 seats, the BJP in 72 and the JDS in 30 (13.1 percent voteshare).As Congress has crossed the halfway mark by leading in 119 seats, party workers are celebrating outside the KPCC headquarters in Bengaluru. 

Reacting to the early trends where Congress is leading, former chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah said he was confident that the party will win more than 120 seats. "The BJP might win 65-70 seats while JD(S) will win 25 seats," he said.  Siddaramaiah also expressed his confidence in winning from the Varuna constituency. "Even if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah campaign in Karnataka it will not work as the people of the state are fed up of the anti-public policies of the BJP and corruption and other issues," he said. Congress credited  Rahul Gandhi for party's resurgence. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has expressed confidence that the ruling BJP will cross the "magic number" with a clear majority. "We are confident that we will win and cross the magic number. We have got the ground report from all the booths and the constituencies". On being asked about Congress having allegedly booked resorts to keep the flock together, Mr Bommai said the grand old party will not get a majority and hence they are in touch with other parties.