BJP sweeps Karnataka bypolls, retains majority
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday swept the Assembly bypolls in Karnataka winning 12 of the 15 seats to help Yediyurappa government retain majority, in a morale booster for the saffron party after its recent setback in Maharashtra.
The BJP sweep had an immediate fallout in the Congress with its Legislature Party leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah and State Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao quitting their posts. The Congress’ poor showing winning only two seats, as against 12 it held of the 15 that went to the bypolls, threw the state unit into a turmoil. The bypolls were held on December 5.
Citing “unsatisfactory results”, the leaders tendered their resignations to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and took moral responsibility for the party’s drubbing.
The bypolls were considered a litmus test for the BJP government as it needed to win at least six of the 15 seats at stake to remain in majority in the 225member assembly. Congress ally JD(S) drew a blank.
The BJP’S tally goes up from 105 (including an independent) to 117, which is well ahead of the halfway mark of 111 in the 223member Assembly (two seats — Maski and R R Nagar — are vacant due to pending litigation in the High Court). Turncoats had a field day as 11 of the 13 in the fray after joining the BJP emerged victorious, as the ruling party’s gamble to field the defectors from the Congress and the JD(S) who helped them come to power paid off.
The BJP’S emphatic win also echoed in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll rallies in Jharkhand where he accused the Congress and its allies of “stealing and subverting” people’s mandate in Karnataka last year. “The Congress and its allies subverted the mandate in Karnataka, stabbed it in the back...the Congress stole the mandate through the back door, and now people have punished it and taught it a lesson,” he said.
Modi called the bypolls in Karnataka “extraordinary”, one which would decide whether the BJP government would stay or go. “There are three messages for Jharkhand and other states in the by-poll outcome. The first is that people want a stable government. Second, people feel insulted by subversion of their mandate and teach those guilty a lesson. Third, they trust only BJP can give a government that can deliver,” he said.
The Congress managed to win Hunsur and Shivajinagar seats, while independent candidate Sharath Bachegowda, who was earlier expelled from the BJP, won in Hoskote.