BANGALORE, May 25: India’s main opposition party, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won an election in the southern state of Karnataka on Sunday, extending a winning streak ahead of a national vote due by early 2009.

The BJP victory surprised many pollsters and analysts and was another blow for the centre-left Congress party, which leads India’s ruling coalition government.

The BJP won 110 of 224 seats, the state election commission said — its first outright win in one of India’s four southern states. It caps a string of recent state wins.

Congress won only 80 seats, the final results showed, and conceded defeat.

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 galvanise the party for the general elections,” he told reporters in Bangalore, the state capital.

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

The BJP lost to Congress in 2004 general elections amid a backlash over economic reforms but also due to its weakness in the south. The party, which had traditionally done well only in northern states, has been hoping to use a win in Karnataka to widen its geographical reach.—Reuters