Mon, Nov 24 01:26 PM
Bangalore, Nov 24 (PTI) Short of simple majority by three seats in the 224-member Karnataka assembly and surviving with the support of six independents, the first BJP government in the state is all geared up to win the seven bypolls scheduled to be held on December 27. The BJP, which has 110 members including the Speaker, sees the bypolls as an opportunity to regain majority in the House on its own.
BJP requires 113 for simple majority. Congress has 77 and JD(S) has 23 members in the House.
By-elections were due for eight seats, but polls would be held only for seven as an election petition was pending in the Karnataka High Court with regard to the Madhugiri seat. The bypolls were necessitated after the B S Yeddyurappa ministry in a calibrated exercise codenamed 'Operation Lotus' encouraged defections of MLAs from the opposition Congress and JD(S) ranks who resigned their membership.
The BJP has geared up for the by-elections, a day after the Election Commission announced the schedule in the state, and converted its two-day session called to discuss on development programmes with its legislators today at a hotel into a poll strategy evolving meeting. "We will announce candidates for the all seven seats in two days.
There are possibilities that party might change candidates in some of the constituencies which will go to bypoll," Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa told reporters before presiding over the meeting. Welcoming the announcement of poll schedule, he exuded confidence that the party would win in all the seven seats.
However, Yeddyurappa said, the outcome of the election would not be a referendum on his government's performance. PTI.