K’taka by-poll results: A message for those who betrayed popular mandate
Bangaluru, Dec 9: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is posed to regain the reins of the only southern state ruled by the BJP.
The BJP, in spite of emerging as a single largest party, was denied its rightful claim to form the government as the Congress-JD(S) stole the popular mandate as was done in Maharashtra recently. However, by winning 12 out of 15 seats for which by-elections were held, the BJP has underlined the fact that those who betray the popular mandate do not get the public endorsement for their tricks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also reacted in the similar way. From Hazaribag, where he was addressing election rallies in poll-bound state of Jharkhand, Narendra Modi said that the Karnataka poll results is a message for all states where anyone betrayed the public mandate.
Modi referred to the state of political tussle the state of Karnataka witnesses soon after the assembly election results were announced and how the popular mandate was betrayed to pave the way for Congress-JD (S) coalition government. The parties had contested elections against each other in the assembly election but came together to ‘keep the BJP out of power’ forming an unholy alliance.
Prime Minister Modi said, “Today people of Karnataka have proved that Congress and JD-S won’t be able to betray them”. Launching a scathing attack against the Congress Modi said that people of Karnataka had witnessed corruption and ‘laxity in development during the Cong-JD(S) rule’, have voted for the BJP.
He said these results are a tight slap on the face of those parties who betray the popular mandate for the sake of their power-politics.
Modi further said, “Today people of Karnataka have proved that Congress and JD-S won’t be able to betray them. "This is a message for all states of the country that if someone will go against the public mandate and betray people, the citizens will punish them at the first opportunity”.
He said that the people of Karnataka had voted in favour of BJP but the Congress played behind the curtain and managed to prevent the BJP from forming the government. However, today the people punished those who betrayed that popular mandate, he said indicating that this could be a warning for those who treaded the same path in other states making an oblique remark towards the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance that formed the government in Maharashtra after Shiv Sena betrayed the pact with BJP and allied with these parties.
The Prime Minister thanked the people of Karnataka for reposing faith in the BJP and its development policies and stability.
Adding that the results are an answer to people who say BJP has limited influence in the south, Modi in Hazaribagh said, “What the country thinks about political stability and for political stability how much the country trusts BJP, an example of that is in front of us today… BJP is leading on most seats. I express my gratitude towards people of Karnataka.”
The bypolls were necessitated after 15 rebel MLAs from the Congress and JD(S) parties quit the Assembly in a bid to bring down the coalition government led by chief minister H D Kumaraswamy. They were suspended from the House but were allowed to contest polls. BJP fielded 13 of the 17 MLAs in the bypolls.
Two seats remain vacant in the House — Rajarajeshwari Nagar and Maski — as separate election petitions challenging the results of the 2018 elections are still pending in the Karnataka High Court.
BJP candidates who are leading are- Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur), Anand Singh (Vijayanagara), Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), B C Patil (Hirekerur), Shrimant Patil (Kagwad), K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), Mahesh Kumthalli (Athani), Arun Kumar Guttur (Ranebennur), Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout) and Byrathi Basavaraj (K R Puram).
Congress nominees H P Manjunath (Hunsur) and Rizwan Arshad (Shivajinagar) were leading; JD(S)' B L Devaraj and Javarayi Gowda were ahead in K R Pete and Yeshwanthpura respectively.
BJP's rebel and independent candidate Sharath Bachegowda, son of Chikkaballapura Lok Sabha member B N Bachegowda, was leading ahead of party's official candidate MTB Nagaraj in Hoskote.
The bypolls were held to fill vacancies caused by the disqualification of 17 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs, whose revolt led to collapse of the H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in July and paved the way for BJP to come to power.
The BJP needs to win at least six of the 15 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 Assembly with the current strength of 208 after 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.
