BJP bags 4 seats in Karna bypolls;on course to retain majority

The ruling BJP on Monday bagged four seats and was leading in eight others as the B S Yediyurappa-led government appeared on course to sweep the bypolls in 15 constituencies and retain a majority. The opposition Congress and JDS faced a huge setback.

The Congress, which had won 12 of those 15 seats in the previous election, was leading only in two segments -- Hunsur and Shivajinagar. The JDS, headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, which held the remaining three seats, was trailing in all the 12 segments where it fielded candidates.

Independent candidate Sharath Bachegowda from Hoskote was marching ahead towards victory. "We have done very badly", a shocked veteran Congress leader, who did not wished to be named, said on the results of the December five byelections.

The BJP needs to win at least six seats to remain in majority in the House. BJP candidate Arabail Shivaram Hebbar defeated Bhimanna Naik (Congress) by over 31,400 votes in Yellapur.

Scripting history by recording the first ever win for the BJP in the Vokkaliga bastion of Mandya district, its candidate Narayana Gowda defeated B L Devaraj of JDS by over 9,700 votes. BJP candidates in Hirekerur and Kagwad- B C Patil and Shrimant Patil won by margins of 29,194 and 16,202 votes respectively.

BJP candidates who are leading are-, Anand Singh (Vijayanagara), Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), Mahesh Kumthalli (Athani), Arun Kumar Guttur (Ranebennur), Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout), S T Somashekar (Yeshwanthpura) and Byrathi Basavaraj (K R Puram). Congress nominees H P Manjunath (Hunsur) and Rizwan Arshad (Shivajinagar) were leading in their respective constituencies.

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 14-month-old 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, where byelections are yet to be declared owing to election-related petitions pending in court..