Bangalore, December 30
The ruling BJP in Karnataka today secured the much-desired simple majority in the state Assembly by winning five of the eight constituencies where by-polls were held on Saturday.
In seven of these constituencies, by-polls were necessitated following resignation by four Janata Dal (S) and three Congress legislators from their seats for joining the ruling BJP. And in Maddur segment of Mandya district, by-poll took place following the death of sitting JD(S) MLA MS Siddaraju. Kalpana Siddaraju, JD(S) nominee and widow of the late MLA, defeated BJP candidate DC Thammanna by over 19,000 votes.
While the by-election results declared today helped the BJP overcome its insecurity with regard to its strength in the state Assembly, the JD(S), too, has a reason to be happy with its show. Besides Maddur, JD(S) candidates were victorious in two more seats, including the high-profile Madhugiri where the party nominee was Anita Kumarswamy, wife of former Chief Minister HD Kumarswamy and daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Deve Gowda. She defeated her nearest rival from the Congress by a margin of over 3,000 votes. At Turuvekere
in Tumkur district JD(S) candidate MT Krishnappa defeated the BJP candidate.
The Congress, the largest opposition party in the house, drew a blank in the by-polls. The appalling performance of the Congress party would expose the newly chosen state leadership of the party to attacks by their rivals inside the party.
BJP, which had secured 110 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly during the general elections held in May, had cobbled up a government in the state with the support of six Independent legislators.
Suspicious about the durability of the support of the Independent legislators, the saffron party started poaching on legislators from the opposition Congress and JD(S). Eventually, four JD(S) MLAs and three Congress MLAs were inducted into the BJP after the MLAs resigned from their seats to circumvent any action against them under the provisions of the anti-defection law. Four of the seven MLAs were made ministers and all four of them, fighting as BJP candidates, emerged victorious in the by-polls. They are Balachandra Jarakiholi (Arabhavi), Umesh Katti (Hukkeri), K Shivanagowda Naik (Devadurga) and Anand Asnotikar (Karwar). Umesh Katti defeated his nearest rival from the Congress by a margin of over 67,000 votes.
J Narasimhaswamy, son of disgruntled Congress leader RL Jalappa, was the fifth BJP candidate to win. He defeated his nearest rival from the Congress by a margin of over 13,000 votes in Doddaballapur segment. Narasimhaswamy had won the Doddaballapur seat in the May Assembly elections as a Congress candidate but later resigned from his seat and joined the BJP.
Only in Turuvekere and Madhugiri, the BJP did not field the turncoats. Jaggesh, who won Turuvekere seat in the May elections as a Congress candidate and Gowrishankar, who was victorious in Madhugiri as a representative of JD(S), had both resigned from their seats and joined the BJP. The saffron party refrained from repeating the two MLAs. While Gowrishankar’s father Channigappa was fielded from Madhugiri, MD Lakshminarayan, a former BJP MLA, was given the ticket in Turuvekere. The changes did not work as both the candidates were trounced.
