Congress must now build on Karnataka win, say experts

The Karnataka win will be a sure morale booster for the Congress, now battling charges of corruption, but the real challenge will be to focus on good governance ahead of the next round of state elections and the 2014 Lok Sabha battle, experts say.

Even as they celebrate their victory in Karnataka, Congress leaders are aware that the sorry state of affairs in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) found itself in the state may not be repeated everywhere.

However, the victory in Karnataka could not have come at a better time for a party under attack over corruption charges. It has wrested the state from the BJP, which had hoped to make its base to expand in southern India,.

According to N. Bhaskara Rao of the Centre for Media Studies, the "focus of the Congress should now be to build upon this victory".

According to experts, good governance and not corruption will be a major  issue when Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh see elections later this year. In all four states, the main battle will be between the Congress and the BJP. This will be followed by the next Lok Sabha election in 2014.

"The Karnataka result will boost the Congress confidence. It will help  create a subjective environment in its favour in the next round of state and Lok Sabha polls," Pradeep Dutta, who teaches political science in Delhi University, told IANS.

Nisar-ul Haq, who teaches political science in Jamia Millia Islamia  University here, said the Karnataka result will strengthen the Congress.

"The performance of the government is the real issue, not corruption," Haq told IANS.
The Congress said the Karnataka outcome had exposed the BJP's double  standards on corruption.

"The victory will encourage our workers all over the country," Congress spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das told IANS.

Expressing the hope that the Congress would do well in the next round of  assembly polls, he said the UPA would have to focus on transparent and responsive government.
"This is an age of information. The government has to be transparent and  responsive," said Das.