Click to play videoBangalore: Congress' hopes have been ruined in Karnataka as the Grand Old Party failed to win a single seat in the Assembly by-elections held on Sunday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got a simple majority in the Karnataka Assembly winning five of the eight seats to which by-elections were held with Janata Dal (Secular) winning the other three.
The by-election results have come as good news for the BJP just before the New Year and have paved the way for a stable five-year term for it in Karnataka.
Five of the seven MLAs it had poached from other parties have won the Assembly by-elections. The BJP now has three more MLAs than it needed to get a simple majority in the House.
The mood in the saffron camp is upbeat. State BJP President DV Sadananda Gowda said, "From January 1 onwards we'll go ahead with Lok Sabha campaign and certainly we will ensure that we win at least 25 out of 28 seats in Karnataka."
While it couldn't beat the BJP, the JD(S) too has something to be happy about.
JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda's daughter-in-law Anita Kumaraswamy won the Madhugiri seat defeating a former Gowda confidante who had defected to the BJP.
Anita and her husband, former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, will be the first couple to be MLAs together in Karnataka.
"This is first time such an occasion has arisen. We will see how the situation will be," said Kumaraswamy.
But the biggest blow in these by-elections was for the Congress.
While the party has been upbeat over electoral successes elsewhere, it hasn't won a single seat in the Karnataka by-elections.
Even former chief minister SM Krishna's high-profile nephew Gurucharan failed to leave a mark.
One of the possible reasons for his defeat could be Siddaramaiah, who has been sidelined by the party and didn't campaign at all. And factionalism is again costing the party dear.
"If understanding would have been there, it would have helped. But for that we have to be blamed and JD(S) has to be blamed," RV Deshpande, state Congress President, said.
As much as it is about the BJP and the JD(S), these by-elections are also about the weakening hold of the Congress in Karnataka.
In-fighting could even lead the party to a split and that will spell doom for the party's prospects in the General Elections unless something drastic isn't done in the coming weeks.
(With inputs from Abhirr VP and Brenton Cordeiro)
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