The crucial by-elections to 15 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka that will determine the fate of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa led BJP Government will be held on Thursday amid concerns of political parties of a possible low voter turn out.
Polling will be held between 7 am to 6 pm on Thursday in the 15 constituencies where a total of 37.78 lakh electors are eligible to cast their votes and all arrangements have been made for the exercise, officials said.
The by-elections are being held to fill the vacancies caused by the disqualification of 17 rebel Congress and JDS MLAs, whose rebellion led to the collapse of the H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in July and paved the way for the BJP to come to power.
The BJP needs to win at least six of the seats to remain in majority in the 225-member Assembly (including the Speaker, who has a casting vote), which would still have two vacant seats — Maski and R R Nagar.
In the Aassembly with the current strength of 208 after the disqualifications, the BJP has 105 MLAs (including an independent), the Congress 66 and the JD(S) has 34 MLAs. There is also one BSP member, a nominated member and the Speaker.
Thirteen of the disqualified MLAs have been fielded by the BJP after they joined the party last month following the Supreme Court allowing them to contest the bypolls.
During the campaign, the BJP sought votes for “stability”, while the Congress and JD(S) urged the electorate to defeat the disqualified legislators responsible for the collapse of their coalition Government in July.
Among 15 constituencies going to the bypolls, 12 were held by Congress and three by JD(S).
BJP has fielded 13 of the 16 disqualified legislators as its candidates from their respective constituencies from where they had won in the 2018 assembly elections on Congress and JDS tickets.