Winning two of the three seats in the byelections, especially the huge margin of victory in the Hebbal seat which had turned out to be a prestige issue for the ruling Congress, is a boost for the Bharatiya Janata Party which is getting ready to launch an offensive on the third anniversary of Siddaramaiah assuming office as Chief Minister.
Setting the tone for an offensive, the BJP described the byelection setback for the Congress as “mirroring of the dissatisfaction of people against the failure of the Siddaramaiah government just ahead of its third anniversary”.
Interestingly, the Hebbal victory has come as a relief to Bengaluru North MP and Union Law Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, in whose jurisdiction the constituency is located. While the Hebbal byelection was all along projected as a prestige battle for the Chief Minister, BJP leaders pointed out that any setback for the party would have turned out be politically tricky for Mr. Gowda too.
The party leadership would also be keenly observing how the battle between Mr. Siddaramaiah and Congress veteran leaders plays out in the aftermath of the Hebbal results.
No celebrations
The BJP, which won two of the three Assembly seats in the bypolls, cancelled its victory celebrations at its State headquarters in Bengaluru as a mark of respect to the two soldiers from Karnataka who died in Siachen, and whose funeral was held on Tuesday. Instead, a minute’s silence was observed at the party office.
Bidar defeat an embarrassment to BSY?
The fact that the BJP could not retain its bastion in Bidar, which has a sizeable Lingayat population, is being seen as an embarrassment to the party’s Lingayat strongman B.S. Yeddyurappa.
Bidar was considered one of the areas where the former Chief Minister has strong influence and the Karnataka Janata Party which was then headed by Mr. Yeddyurappa had managed to win this seat in 2013. The constituency had strongly rallied behind him in the past.
However, the BJP could not retain the seat now despite Mr. Yeddyurappa’s hectic campaign. Party leaders attribute other reasons — such as family members of the late Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli, who represented this seat, not showing keenness to enter the political fray and the fact that the party’s candidate was an outsider — for the election setback.
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D. V. Sadananda Gowda, Union Law Minister: The bypoll results are a verdict against the Congress government which is about to complete three years. It is a pointer to the 2018 Assembly polls.
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Jagadish Shettar, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly: People have taught a lesson to the Siddaramaiah government through the bypoll results for not waking up despite farmers’ suicides and for failing to take up any important development programmes in the last three years.
