Just a day before the close of 2015, the ruling Congress in Karnataka led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah led a massive victory in the legislative Council polls by winning 13 seats out of 25 seats from the local authority constituencies. 

The results declared on Wednesday for the polls held last week has consolidated the position of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who had to fight the rebellion within before the elections.

The main Opposition BJP had to face the drubbing by winning only six seats and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s JD(S) had to be satisfied with just four seats along with two Independents, who made it to the legislative Council.

Even though the results were on the anticipated line, it was a huge setback for the BJP as their leaders were on a very high hope on encashing the rebellion within the Congress. In fact BJP’s leader in the council KS Eshwarappa had openly announced that he would resign from public life if the Congress bagged one seat more than his party in the polls. Interestingly, the BJP lost in Shivamogga, which is represented by former CM BS Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa. In fact Yeddyurappa has high ambition of coming back to State politics after this. 

 The JD(S) which is facing a major revolt against the party leadership lost the seat in Gowda’s home district Hassan to the Congress. The party candidate Patel Shivaramu lost miserably to the Congress candidate.

But JD(S) dented the image of the Congress and cashed in at Kolar defeating the Congress candidate. The political rivalry between Kolar MP KH Muniyappa, whose candidate Anil Kumar was given the ticket at the last minute with neighbouring Chikballapur MP M Veerappa Moily cost party the seat which it had held.

However, Congress rebels in Bengaluru Urban Dayanand Reddy and in Dakshina Kannada former MP K Jayaprakash Hegde and Harikrishna Bantwal failed to make any impact. All the three were expelled from the

party after they chose to continue to be in the fray. In a surprise victory, the BJP has upset the cartel of Congress leader M Mallikarjuna Kharge in Gulbarga district by winning the seat by a huge margin.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has managed to secure his home town Mysore district for the Congress. The Congress has also won Bangalore City District. The BJP rebel and former Union Minister BR Patil Yatnal has won Vijapura district by pushing the BJP to third place.

Former Chief Minister N Dharam Singh’s son Vijay Singh has won on Congress ticket from Bidar district. Former MP KC Kondaiah of the Congress has won from Bellary district. The Congress has also won Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Bangalore Rural, Chitradurga, Dharwad, Bijapura, Raichur districts. The BJP has won Bijapura, Dakshina Kannada, Gulbarga, Chikmagalur, Kodagu and Dharwad districts. Dakshina Kannada, Mysore, Bijapura, Dharwad and Belgaum districts elect two members each.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the victory was a mandate for the congress and its work.