Hard blow for Cong
In yet another electoral setback, Congress today yielded two seats to ruling BJP and one to JD(S) in the bypolls to five Karnataka Assembly segments but a state minister’s defeat marred the saffron party’s gains.
Congress managed to retain only Govindarajanagar of the four seats it held, while the BJP and JD(S) notched up two seats each with the victory coming as a bonus to the saffron party which held none of the segments that went to the polls.
BJP annexed Kollegal and Chitapur (both reserved) seats, while JD(S) wrested Chennapatna and retained Ramanagara. It was, however, a loss of face for the BJP as housing minister V Somanna, considered an influential Lingayat community leader, lost to Congress nominee Priya Krishna in Govindarajanagar in Bangalore by a margin of 5,239 votes.
Somanna had deserted the Congress in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls in April last and resigned his Govindarajanagar assembly seat before joining the BJP.
The blow was the hardest for Congress in Chitapur where Priyank Kharge, son of Union labour minister M Mallikarjun Khage, was humbled by BJP’s Valmiki Nayak by 1,606 votes. The latest electoral debacle of Congress comes after it failed to halt BJP’s march since last year’s assembly polls which led to the party’s first ever government in the south.
Expressing happiness over BJP winning two of the five seats in Karnataka Assembly bypolls, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today attributed the outcome to “an anti-Congress wave in the state favouring BJP government”.
“People have reposed confidence in the BJP Government in Karnataka”, Yeddyurappa told reporters here reacting to the BJP wresting Chitapur and Kollegal in the bypolls.
“The prestigious Chittapur, where central minister Mallikarjuna Kharge’s son, Priyank Kharge, contested, and Kollegal, were considered key constituencies for both Kharge and Opposition Congress leader Siddaramaiah. BJP has wrested both the seats, which shows that weaker sections are favouring the BJP Government”, he said.
He, however, said it was unfortunate that BJP nominees in Govindarajanagar and Chennapatna, V Somanna and C P Yogeshwar respectively, were defeated by narrow margins and attributed them to “money power, muscle power and caste factor” and a “conspiracy hatched by both Congress and JD(S)”.
He said the BJP would decide on Somanna’s continuance in the ministry after discussing with party leaders.
He rejected the idea that “Operation Lotus”, BJP’s gameplan to woo influential opposition leaders into its fold. had failed. The people had voted for the BJP in two seats and a similar response was seen in the past polls.
