The victory in 12 of 15 seats in the Assembly bypolls in Karnataka on Monday has helped the BJP graduate from a wafer-thin majority to the well-past halfway mark in the State Assembly and put the BS Yediyurappa Government on a firm footing.
With this, the BJP’s numbers will go up from 105 (including an independent) to 117, which is well ahead of the halfway mark of 111 in the present 223-member Assembly. Two seats — Maski and RR Nagar — are vacant due to litigation in the High Court.
BS Yeddyurappa had wrested power from the Congress-JD(S) combine by engineering defection of 17 MLAs — 14 from the Congress and 3 from the JD(S) — who were disqualified by the Assembly Speaker. The Supreme Court in July gave a breather to the MLAs by allowing them to contest Assembly bypolls.
The long-drawn political drama with “rebel” MLAs ferried out of the State and kept in star hotels subsequently led to the fall of the JD(S)-Congress coalition Government headed by JD(S) leader HD Kumarawamy on July 23 during a trust vote.
The “Operation Kamal” of the BJP has now taken a full circle with these MLAs winning the bypolls and boosting the Lingayat leader’s hand in the Assembly.
The BJP needed to win at least six of the 15 seats to remain in a majority.
The Chief Minister whose leadership was being questioned by a section of State and Central leadership has now seemingly given a befitting answer to his critic.
The result is a major setback for the Opposition parties. Congress legislature party leader (CLP) Siddaramaiah and State unit chief Dinesh Gundu Rao have resigned from their posts owing moral responsibility for the debacle.
“I have decided to resign from this post. I have sent my resignation to our party (Interim) president Sonia Gandhi,” Rao told reporters at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office.
In a letter addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Siddaramaiah said he takes responsibility and resigns as the CLP leader.
The Congress managed to retain only Hunasuru and Shivajinagar seats.
Independent candidate Sharath Bachegowda, who was earlier expelled from the BJP for anti-party activities after he contested the bypoll as a rebel, won in Hoskote.
JD(S) that had won three seats in the previous election- KR Pete, Mahalakshmi Layout and Hunsur- drew a blank.
The 12 BJP candidates who won are: Arabail Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapura), Narayana Gowda (KR Pete), BC Patil (Hirekerur), Shrimant Patil (Kagwad), Mahesh Kumthalli (Athani), K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout), Anand Singh (Vijayanagara), Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Arun Kumar Guttur (Ranebennur), ST Somashekar (Yeshwanthpura) and Byrathi Basavaraj (KR Puram).
Congress candidates who have won are Rizwan Arshad (Shivajinagar) and HP Manjunath (Hunasureu).
The results were in line with exit poll predictions by local news channels and agencies that had indicated a clear majority for BJP by winning 9-12 of the 15 seats.
BJP had fielded 13 of the 16 disqualified legislators, who joined the party after the Supreme Court allowed them to contest the bypolls. Eleven of them have won the bypolls.
Jubilant after the BJP’s stellar performance in the by-elections, Yediyurappa asserted on Monday he would give a stable and pro-development government for the next three-and-half years -- the remainder of his term.
He also made it clear that there was no question of backtracking from the assurance given to disqualified legislators that they would be made ministers.