The BJP government led by B.S. Yediyurappa on December 9 retained its majority in the Karnataka Assembly when it bagged 10 seats out of 15 in the bypolls and was leading in two other segments where counting is underway.

The BJP’s good show in the 12 seats comes as a morale booster for the saffron party after its setback in Maharashtra.

The Congress, which won 12 of those 15 seats in the 2018 Assembly polls, won only in two segments - Hunsur and Shivajinagar, while its former ally - the JD(S) - trailed in all the 12 seats it contested.

Independent candidate Sharath Bachegowda, who was expelled from the BJP for anti-party activities after he contested the bypoll as a rebel, was heading for a win in Hoskote.

The 10 BJP candidates who won are: Arabail Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapura), Narayana Gowda (K.R. Pete), B.C Patil (Hirekerur), Shrimant Patil (Kagwad), Mahesh Kumthalli (Athani), K. Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), K. Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout), Anand Singh (Vijayanagara), Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), and Arun Kumar Guttur (Ranebennur).

The bypolls were held to fill the vacancies caused by the disqualification of 17 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs whose revolt led to the collapse of the 14-month-old H.D. Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in July and paved the way for the BJP to come to power.

The BJP needed to win at least six of the 15 seats to remain in a 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.

In the Assembly with the current strength of 208 after disqualifications, the BJP has 105 MLAs (including an independent), the Congress 66 and the JD(S) has 34 MLAs. There is also one BSP member, a nominated member and the Speaker.

If the BJP wins the two constituencies it is leading in, the party’s numbers will go up from 105 to 117, which is well ahead of the halfway mark of 111 in the 223-member Assembly (two seats are vacant due to pending litigation in the High Court).

BJP candidates who are leading are S.T. Somashekar (Yeshwanthpura) and Byrathi Basavaraj (K.R. Puram).

Yediyurappa had won the confidence motion on July 29 after the effective strength of the 225-member Assembly came down to 208 and the majority mark to 105, equivalent of the BJP’s strength following disqualifications.

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