‘No need of JDS, We will win with Thumping Majority’ : Mallikarjun Kharge

Hours before the Karnataka assembly elections results were declared, the Congress has categorically denied reaching out to the HD Kumaraswamy-led JDS, amid emerging reports that the regional party may play a crucial role in the event of a hung assembly.Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said his party would win a “thumping majority” and that it would decide its next move based on the numbers that the results are likely to throw up.

“The numbers will tell us what to do,” Kharge told television channels, questioned on the possibility of an “Operation Lotus” – the term used by the opposition to describe what they allege is the BJP’s strategy of gaining power by inducing MLAs to switch sides.“We will take a call after the results,” he said.

Kharge denied that his party had been in negotiations with the JDS after a leader claimed the party had decided whom to tie up with.“Nobody.

We are reaching out to nobody,” Kharge reiterated.Exit polls have predicted a majority for the Congress in the polls that took place on Wednesday.

However, a fractured verdict has not been ruled out, which leads to the possibility of the JDS playing kingmaker.In 2018, the BJP emerged as the single-largest party but fell short of a majority.

The Congress and JDS formed a coalition government, which crashed only 14 months later after mass defections to the BJP.On Friday, there were reports suggesting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is holding talks with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in Karnataka over forming the government.On Thursday, a JDS leader claimed that the party had received feelers from both the Congress and the BJP and that a decision had been taken, which set off fierce rumours about a possible BJP-JDS tie-up.