New Delhi: Victory of poor over crony capitalists says Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi : A campaign against corruption, guarantees of dole and consolidation of Muslim votes appear to have underpinned the Congress victory in Karnataka that was also aided by anti-incumbency against the BJP government.

The strength of the poor has defeated the power of crony capitalists and this will happen in all states, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday, stressing that his party raised people's issues and ran a positive campaign.

To what extent this victory will help in catapulting the grand-old party to emerge as a party to lead opposition coalition during 2024 Lok Sabha elections is still not clear. While opposition parties are happy over the defeat of the BJP, it is too early to say whether they would agree to come on one platform and allow Congress to lead them. BRS is unwilling for any such proposal and Mamata too has her own reservations.

Analysts say that Karnataka has a history of not voting for the same party for second consecutive term. The Congress party's all-out attack on the

BJP government over corruption allegations with the "40 per cent commission sarkar" barb also helped them to get a landslide victory.

Reacting to the Congress victory, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday hailed the party's performance in the Karnataka assembly polls as the victory of politics that unites the country.