The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday swept the Assembly by-polls in Karnataka winning 12 of the 15 seats. With this win, the four-month-old B S Yediyurappa government is safe in the state.
The party needed six seats to stay in power.
Congress Legislature Party leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah and State Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao resign from their posts after the poor show of the party that won only two seats, as against the 12 it had held of the 15 which went to the bypolls on December 5.
‘Citing unsatisfactory results’, both leaders tendered their resignations to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Previously, all 15 seats were held by the two parties, with the Congress winning 12 and the JD(S) bagging remaining three.
The elections were held to fill the vacancies caused by the resignation and disqualification of the 17 Congress and JD-S rebels in July.
The rebel MLAs joined the BJP last month, after the Apex Court allowed them to contest the bypolls.
With BJP winning 12 of the 15 assembly constituencies, the party’s numbers will go up from 105 (including an independent) to 117, which is well ahead of the halfway mark of 111.
