NEW DELHI, 26 May 2008 — India’s main opposition party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has won an election in the southern state of Karnataka, extending a winning streak ahead of a national vote due by early 2009.

Ahead of the final declaration of results, when BJP was just a few seats short of the magical figure of 113 required to form a single-party government in the 224-member assembly, sources said that the party had the support of four of the six independent candidates who had won.

Venkaiah Naidu, a senior BJP leader, said voters had tired of the Congress because of rising inflation, bomb attacks in Indian cities and debt problems faced by Indian farmers. “I am very happy that we have come to power in the south. This will galvanize the party for the general elections,” he told reporters in Bangalore.

“I don’t think the Congress will dare go for early elections with these kinds of defeats in several states,” he added.

BJP President Rajnath Singh said that the party would “definitely” form the next government in Karnataka. “In Karnataka, the party may be one or two seats short of majority but that won’t deter the BJP from forming the next government... If any party will form the government in Karnataka, it will be none other than the BJP,” he said.

The triumph in Karnataka is a third victory for the BJP in state elections, following success in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Confident that this trend will favor the BJP all the way to parliamentary elections, scheduled in a year from now, Singh said, “Today’s result shows that the BJP’s victory will continue right up to the general elections including in the Assembly election to be held in Delhi, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan later this year.”

With Karnataka being the first state in southern India to have given it the mandate to rule, the party president said the BJP could no longer be called a north Indian party. The BJP had thus raised its political stature above Congress, Singh said. The party has now declared B.S. Yeddyurappa as its chief ministerial candidate.