Karnataka by-polls to be held on December 5

New Delhi, Sep 28: The Karnataka by-elections will now be held on December 5, the Election Commission has said. Counting of votes will take place on December 9.

The EC had earlier scheduled the by-polls for October 21 and also said that the counting will be held on October 24. However. the EC agreed in the Supreme Court that it would defer the elections until the petitions filed by the disqualified MLAs are heard and decided.

A lot was at stake in these by-elections for the BJP in particular. The Speaker had disqualified 17 MLAs- 13 from the Congress, 3 from JD(S) and one independent. The BJP was able to form the government in a reduced house strength with its 104 MLAs and the support of one independent MLA.

After the by-polls are conducted, the magic number in the house would be 111 and the BJP would have had to win 6 out of the 15 seats that are going to polls. The BJP would have to take a lot into consideration and the first one on the list is that these constituencies are the strongholds of the JD(S) and Congress. Secondly, if it decided to field the rebel lawmakers in the event of relief from the SC, then the resentment factor on the ground would also be a major factor.