Bengaluru: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is heading for a simple majority in the 223-member Karnataka Assembly, as it surged ahead in 12 of the 15 constituencies where vote count is underway for the December 5 bypolls since 8.00 a.m., a party official said Monday.
“Our party is ahead of the opposition Congress in a dozen seats and trailing behind it only in two seats and an Independent in one seat after 10 rounds of vote count in all the 15 Assembly segments,” BJP’s state unit spokesman G. Madusudhan said here.
With 104 members excluding the Speaker and the support of an Independent, the ruling party has 105 seats in the Assembly, including one nominated from the Anglo-Indian community with voting rights.
“Our party’s strength alone will go up to 116, excluding the Speaker and 117 with the Independent, which will be 5 above the simple majority of 112 in the 223-member Assembly, with 2 seats vacant.
Bye-elections in two Assembly seats Muski in Raichur district and R. R. Nagar in Bengaluru southwest were not held, as a litigation on its results from the 2018 Assembly elections is pending in the Karnataka High Court.
Though Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa formed the government for the third time May 17, 2018 with 105 members, he resigned May 19 after he failed to secure eight eight seats required for the simple majority with 113 as the halfway mark then.
Yediyurappa, however, returned to power for the fourth time in the southern state, July 26 after the 14-month-old JD-S Coalition government fell July 23.
As the 5-year tenure of the present Assembly lasts till May 2023, the BJP can remain in the office for the remaining over three years.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress is facing rout again in Karnataka, as it is leading only in 2 of the 15 assembly segments where it contested in the December 5 by-elections in the southern state, a party official said Monday.
“We are leading only in Shivajiagara in Bengaluru Central and in Hunasur in Mysuru district and trailing behind the BJP in dozen seats,” Congress state unit spokesman Ravi Gowda said.
“We have accepted defeat, as the people have accepted most of our defectors who joined the BJP and contested on its Lotus symbol from the seats they resigned and were later disqualified,” Congress senior leader and party’s trouble-shooter D.K. Shivakumar told reporters here.
This is the second time in this year the Congress is facing a humiliating defeat in the state after it won only one Lok Sabha seat (Bangalore Rural) in the April-May parliamentary elections, though it contested in 21 seats in a pre-poll alliance with its former allay JD-S, which also won only one of the 7 seats it contested.
Though the Congress was ousted out of power in the 2018 Assembly elections, it entered into a post-poll alliance with the JD-S to form a coalition government to keep the BJP out of power despite the latter winning in 105 of the 224 seats.
The Congress had won 80 seats and the JD-S 36 in the May 2018 Assembly elections.
IANS
