Karnataka bypolls: P Chidambaram took a swipe at the results of the by-election in Karnataka
Congress leader P Chidambaram has weighed in on the BJP's performance in the Karnataka bypolls that cemented Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa's hold in his government. The bypolls were held on 15 of 17 seats left vacant by MLAs who quit the previous Congress-JDS government in July, leading to its collapse and paving the way for a BJP government. The BJP fielded 13 of the MLAs who quit, and won 12 of the 15 seats yesterday. It even bettered its performance by winning five more at the cost of the Congress and the Janata Dal Secular.
"When the voters will vote for a candidate when he is with the Congress and will vote for him when he defects to BJP, can we say that Indian politics has acquired a transcendence & formlessness that makes India=Heaven," the former finance minister accused of money laundering who recently walked out of Delhi's Tihar tweeted.
The Congress and the JDS had predicted that voters would punish the MLAs who had defected to the BJP. But the bypoll results came otherwise. "We have accepted defeat, people have accepted defectors," Congress troubleshooter in Karnataka DK Shivakumar said on Monday.
Mr Yediyurappa has said he will do everything to ensure the MLAs who quit the Congress and the JDS are made ministers, which was seen as a way of compensating them for the role they played in ensuring the BJP's return in the southern state.
"We had given assurance to all the disqualified (Congress-JDS) MLAs that they will be made ministers. So there is no question of backtracking from what we promised them. We will make them ministers and give them responsibility to grow our party base in their area," Mr Yediyurappa said.
His plan is, however, facing protests from some leaders and supporters of the party, who say the rebel newcomers have been given preference over leaders who have been with the BJP for a long time.
As the results of the bypolls in Karnataka were coming in, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a rally in Jharkhand said, "What the country thinks about political stability, and for political stability how much the country trusts BJP, an example of that is in front of us today... BJP is leading on most seats (in Karnataka). I express my gratitude towards people of Karnataka."