Bengaluru: The voters will cast their valuable votes for the much-awaited Karnataka by-polls on Thursday, starting at 7 am. Everyone is waiting with bated breath to see if the voters will give the disqualified MLAs yet another chance to represent them or the voters too will disqualify them.
It may be recalled that as many as 17 MLAs from the Congress and the JDS coalition broke ties with their respective parties and led to the collapse of the then coalition government. This also led to the BS Yediyurappa led BJP to come to power.
The state had faced several by-polls in the past, but this is the second time that the state is witnessing a by-polls of this kind, necessitated due to shifting of the loyalty of the sitting MLAs.
In 2008, BS Yediyurappa had started ‘Operation Kamala’, a process of bringing MLAs into the party fold to save his position as Chief Minister. It was then that the state witnessed its first by-polls after sitting MLAs shifted loyalty. Nearly ten years after this episode, BSY is again the man calling shots behind the scenes that led to yet another by-polls due to MLAs changing party affiliation. By-polls will be held in 15 constituencies out of 17.
The BJP needs at least nine seats to remain in power. It is a do-or-die situation for the disqualified MLAs too, who quit their parties claiming that they were ill-treated by the coalition government. It is known to all that if the disqualified MLAs taste defeat this time, then it is clearly an end of their political journey.
Many say that in 2008 the voters had given an apt answer to the BJP and the same episode will repeat even this time. The fate of the disqualified MLAs and the impact of the poll results on state political will be out on December 9.
