BSY thanks people for re-electing disqualified MLAs, promises ministerial berths

Bengaluru, Dec 9: Thanking people of Karnataka for unhesitatingly re-electing disqualified Congress and JD(S) MLAs who had contested on BJP ticket, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa today said that they would be made ministers in his Cabinet.

The BJP looks poised to win 12 out of the 15 constituencies that faced bypolls. By winning 12 seats, the BJP will ensure a comfortable majority in the 222-member Assembly with a tally of 117.

“We have won 12 out of the 15 seats," Yediyurappa announced. "They (disqualified MLAs) sacrificed for us. We’ve promised to make them ministers. There’s no question of going back on this promise,” Yediyurappa said. He said he will visit New Delhi in the coming days to hold talks with the party’s central leadership.

“These results were possible only because of our strong organisation,” he said, decrying attempts by the Opposition Congress and the JD(S) to project instability. “At least now, I request Congress and JD(S) leaders to extend their support. We should now focus on the state’s development. For the next three years, I will focus on good governance. In the next Assembly polls, we’ll aim to win 150 seats,” the CM said.

“We will now work on strengthening the party further. In Mandya, where we have won the KR Pet segment, we will work at the grassroots,” he said. With a victory in KR Pet, the BJP has for the first time breached the Vokkaliga-dominated Mandya district that the JD(S) had made its bastion for a long time.

Asked if the disqualified legislators, who lost the bypolls, will be made ministers by getting them elected to the Legislative Council, Yediyurappa said: “I don't want to discuss this now. In the coming days, we will discuss this with the Central leadership.”

Amid the celebration, however, the BJP could stare at defeat in Hunsur and Hoskote, where it had fielded disqualified MLAs AH Vishwanath and MTB Nagaraj, respectively. “Well, one cannot win all 15 seats,” Yediyurappa said.

In Hoskote, BJP’s rebel Sharath Bachegowda, who contested as an Independent, appears to be winning against Nagaraj. While Sharath was expelled for his mutiny, his father BN Bachegowda, the BJP’s Chikkaballapur MP, was under the party’s scanner for his “tacit” support to Sharath.

“About Hoskote, everybody knows what happened. The Central leadership has been appraised of things,” Yediyurappa said.