Coming as a major political victory, the BJP in Karnataka has won 6 assembly seats and is leading in around 6 seats, making a clear assurance that the incumbent government led by CM BS Yediyuruppa would stay in power. The by-polls were conducted on December on 15 seats out which 12 seats are seemingly coming to the BJP. BJP is running on the top in the results with a major 49.77 per cent vote share.
The by-elections were crucial for the BJP, which needed to win at least seven seats in order to save its incumbent government, to ensure the majority of 112 seats in the 223-member strong house as till now it only had the support of 104 members.
Chief Minister Yeddyurappa expressed gratitude to the people while senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar said it is sad that the people have supported the defections.
Notably, after several days of political drama, the Congress-JD(S) coalition government which had come to power last year had finally fallen earlier as Kumaraswamy lost the trust vote 105-99 in favour of the BJP. Ever since the reports of Congress and JD(S) MLAs tendering their resignations surfaced, it had become clear that the Karnataka government was not going to survive for very long. The coalition government had fallen into a political crisis after reports of 16 MLAs tendering their resignations had come up. It had become clear that once these resignations were accepted, the coalition government would lose its majority. The rebel MLAs had skipped the trust vote after more than a week of persuasion by Congress-JD(S) to attend the trust vote.
Further indicating the dilemma of the opportunist alliance with the Congress, former Karnataka Chief Minister, Kumaraswamy had ruled out a pre-poll alliance with the Congress earlier this by-poll election. The former alliance partners had contested independently in these polls in all the 17 Assembly constituencies which had fallen vacant after the disqualification of 17 MLAs belonging to the Congress and the JD(S) by the then Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar.
The opportunist post-poll coalition of Congress and JD(S) was seen as being contrary to the people’s mandate as the Congress and the JD(S) had fought the election opposing each other brutally. However, later on, giving in to political greed, the two had forged an alliance of convenience. Nonetheless, this alliance, which had no ideological basis whatsoever, had met its fate.
The incoming setback of JD(S) and the Congress is also a lesson for the Shiv Sena to understand that the people of the country despise opportunistic alliances. Sena should immediately withdraw from the Maharashtra alliance which is being headed by Sena Chief Uddhav himself as the people have shown that they dislike alliances with no ideological similarities.