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Victory in bypoll gives BJP decisive majority

Special Correspondent

Party wins five seats, Janata Dal (S) three, Congress none

— Photo: KPN

Shocked: BJP candidate in Turuvekere Lakshminarayana, who suffered a heart attack, being taken to hospital on Tuesday.

BANGALORE: The Bharatiya Janata Party has won a decisive victory in the byelections to the Legislative Assembly by bagging five of the eight seats. This now gives the party a crucial majority in the Assembly. The victory is also a vindication of the party’s strategy, codenamed “Operation Kamala,” in which seven Opposition MLAs gave up their Assembly membership this July to join the BJP. The five BJP candidates who have won from Doddaballapur, Karwar, Arabhavi, Hukkeri and Deodurga, had defected to the party from the Congress and Janata Dal (S).

With this victory, the strength of the BJP in the 225-member Assembly has increased to 115 (including the nominated Anglo-Indian MLA, and not including the Speaker).

While the July defections resulted in the byelections to seven constituencies, in Maddur, the byelection was held to fill the vacancy arising from the death of MLA Siddaraju.

The fight-back to the BJP came from the Janata Dal (S) that won the elections in Maddur, Madhugiri and Turuvekere, indicating that the traditional Old-Mysore base of the party remains intact.

The Congress, the principal Opposition party of the State, drew a blank. However, the party came second in six constituencies, namely, Karwar, Hukkeri, Arabhavi and Deodurga in the north, and Madhugiri and Doddaballapur in the south.

Janata Dal (S) State unit president H.D. Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha Kumaraswamy, a debutante in electoral politics, won from Madhugiri in a keenly fought battle. Interestingly, C. Chennigappa, the BJP candidate who defected from the Janata Dal (S), was reduced to a distant third with Congress candidate K.N. Rajanna throwing a surprise by emerging second.

Shock

The results in Turuvekere turned out to be a shocker for the BJP as its candidate M.D. Lakshminarayana, who had maintained a lead of about 7,000 votes till the beginning of the last round of counting, lost to Janata Dal (S) candidate M.T. Krishnappa. Mr. Lakshminarayana, who suffered a heart attack, has been admitted to hospital. Here, the seat had fallen vacant as actor-turned-politician Jaggesh had quit his Assembly membership won on a Congress ticket, to join the BJP.

In Maddur, Kalpana Siddaraju, wife of the former Janata Dal (S) MLA Siddaraju, trounced BJP candidate D.C. Thammanna, another “Operation Kamala” defector from the Congress.

The BJP made a clean sweep of all four seats here. In Karwar, the home district of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president R.V. Deshpande, Science and Technology Minister and BJP candidate Anand Asnotikar (who defected in July from the Congress), won with a formidable margin over the Congress candidate.

In Hukkeri, Sugar Minister Umesh Katti, won by a record margin of 67,663 votes against his Congress rival. In Arabhavi, Municipalities Minister Balachandra Jharkiholi trounced the Congress candidate by 32,861 votes. In Deodurga, BJP candidate and Small Savings Minister K. Shivanagouda Naik won by 16,252 votes against his Congress rival. The three Ministers defected from the Janata Dal (S) to the BJP in July.

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