Bengaluru, Dec 8 (IANS): The sweeping electoral victory of the BJP in Gujarat has buoyed the party leaders' spirits in Karnataka which is all set for assembly polls in the first half of 2023. Revenue minister R Ashok on Thursday predicted an exodus of Congress leaders and lawmakers to the BJP in the near future.

"Several Congress leaders, as many as 12, are in touch with me because they want to leave their party and join BJP," Ashok said without elaborating on the identity of the potential Congress defectors.

Stating that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra did not help the Congress in the Gujarat assembly polls, Ashok opined that the AAP is eating into the Congress votes.

"Even if the AAP gets around a 5 percent vote share, the Congress will be decimated in Karnataka too," Ashok declared.

Meanwhile, former Karnataka chief minister and senior BJP leader BS Yeddiyurappa said on Thursday that the saffron party would repeat its Gujarat feat in the state too. The BJP will win more than 140 seats in the elections to the 224 member Karnataka assembly, he claimed.