Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has won from Shiggaon constituency by over 35,000 votes.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Bommai secured total votes of 1,00,016. While, Indian National Congress's Pathan Yasirahmedkhan has secured 64,038 and Janata Dal (Secular) Shashidhar Yeligar has secured 13,928 .
"I take responsibility for this debacle. There are multiple reasons for this. We will find out all the reasons and strengthen the party once again for Parliament elections," Bommai told ANI.
Earlier, Bommai has expressed confidence in BJP coming to power in Karnataka. Bommai, along with his cabinet ministers Murugesh Nirani and Byrati Basavaraj met with former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa in Bengaluru to discuss the probability of a hung verdict and assess its position from the feedback received from the booths.
"We are confident that we will win and cross the magic number. We have got the ground report from all booths and the constituencies," he had said. Bommai had also said that there was no question of any alliance as they are confident of winning the polls.
Yediyurappa dismissed the exit polls and said he was confident of the BJP forming the government. "I don't accept any exit poll results. I have toured the state and I am confident of the BJP winning 120 seats. I would like to tell my partymen in Bengaluru and elsewhere that there is no cause for concern," said Yediyurappa, and advised BJP workers to closely watch the Congress's moves.
The initial trends revealed a slight edge to Congress, with the party leading in 114 seats in early hours. At 10:15 am, Congress is leading in 110 seats, while BJP and JD (S) in 73 and 24 seats respectively.
In 2018, Shiggaon seat was one of the 104 seats won by the BJP, which failed to achieve the majority. Shiggaon is one of the stronghold of BJP.