Rebels vs rebels: Ticket to turncoats complicate Karnataka bypolls for BJP

The upshot is that in half-a-dozen seats or more, the BJP's old-timers-turned-dissidents have filed nominations against the party's official candidates

B S Yediyurappa, the battle-scarred Karnataka chief minister, is up against yet another daunting test in two weeks from now, when 15 Assembly seats go to the by-polls. The by-elections on December 5 have been occasioned by the resignation of 17 Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) legislators who defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which toppled the year-old Congress-JD(S) coalition, and installed a government led by Yediyurappa. The schedule for the remaining two seats, Maski and RK Nagar, has not been announced.

By all accounts, the by-polls, which should ordinarily favour an incumbent government, ought to have been a