2019 Karnataka Legislative Assembly by-elections

By-elections to fifteen state assembly constituencies were held in Karnataka on 5 December 2019, and results were announced on 9 December. BJP, the ruling party, needed to win 6 out of the 15 seats to maintain its majority. It won 12 out of 15 seats. Congress won two, JD(S) failed to open its account, and one seat was won by a rebel BJP leader who contested as an independent.

2019 Karnataka Legislative Assembly By-election

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15 vacant seats in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly
Turnout	70%
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader B. S. Yediyurappa Siddaramaiah H. D. Kumaraswamy Party BJP INC JD(S) Leader's seat Shikaripura Badami Channapatna Last election 0 11 3 Seats won 12 2 0 Seat change 12 9 3 Percentage 50.32% 31.50% 11.90% Swing 18.82pp 13.96pp 4.87pp
Chief Minister before election B. S. Yediyurappa BJP Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa BJP

Election schedule

Scheduled

By-elections to fifteen state assembly constituencies were originally to be held on 21 October 2019 together with Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections. The counting of votes was to be on 24 October 2019.^[1][2][3]

Event	Date	Day
Date for Nominations	23 Sep 2019	Monday
Last Date for filing Nominations	30 Sep 2019	Monday
Date for scrutiny of nominations	1 Oct 2019	Tuesday
Last date for withdrawal of candidatures	3 Oct 2019	Thursday
Date of poll	21 Oct 2019	Monday
Date of counting	24 Oct 2019	Thursday
Date before which the election shall be completed	24 Oct 2019	Sunday

Rescheduled

The Election Commission on 27 September rescheduled the by-elections to 15 Karnataka assembly constituencies to 5 December and will declare the results no later than 11 December.^[4]

Event	Date	Day
Date for Nominations	11 Nov 2019	Monday
Last Date for filing Nominations	18 Nov 2019	Monday
Date for scrutiny of nominations	19 Nov 2019	Tuesday
Last date for withdrawal of candidatures	21 Nov 2019	Thursday
Date of poll	5 Dec 2019	Thursday
Date of counting	9 Dec 2019	Monday
Date before which the election shall be completed	11 Dec 2019	Wednesday

Surveys and polls

Seat projections

Poll type	Publishing Date	Polling Agency					Majority
			BJP	INC	JD(S)	Others
Exit polls[5]	5 December 2019	Karnataka Power TV	8-12	3-6	0-2	0-1	1-5
		BTV	9	3	2	1	2
		Public TV	8-10	3-5	1-2	0-1	1-3

Results

Results by party

Party		Vote Share		Votes		Seats
%	+/-%	No.	+/-	No.	%	+/-
	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	50.32	18.82	1,291,049	457,696	12	80.00	12
	Indian National Congress (INC)	31.50	13.96	808,114	394,560	2	13.33	9
	Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S))	11.90	4.87	305,307	138,325	0	0.00	3
	Uttama Prajaakeeya Party (UPP)	0.43	0.43	10,928	10,928	0	0.00	0
	Karnataka Rashtra Samithi (KRS)	0.11	0.11	2,714	2,714	0	0.00	0
	Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)	0.09	0.09	2,417	2,417	0	0.00	0
	Independent (IND)	4.27	2.01	109,530	49,852	1	6.67	1
	Others	0.38	2.84	9,671	75,531	0	0.00	1
	None of the Above (NOTA)	0.94	0.17	24,073	3,599
Soure: Karnataka CEO[6]

Results by constituency

S.No	Assembly Constituency		Winner				Runner-up				Margin
	No.	Name	Candidate	Party		Votes	Candidate	Party		Votes
1	3	Athani	Mahesh Kumathalli		Bharatiya Janata Party	99,203	Gajanan Bhalachandra Mangasuli		Indian National Congress	59,214	39,989
2	4	Kagwad	Shrimant Balasaheb Patil		Bharatiya Janata Party	76,952	Bharamgouda Alagouda Kage		Indian National Congress	58,395	18,557
3	9	Gokak	Jarkiholi Ramesh Laxmanrao		Bharatiya Janata Party	87,450	Lakhan Laxmanrao Jarkiholi		Indian National Congress	58,444	29,006
4	81	Yellapur	Arabail Hebbar Shivaram		Bharatiya Janata Party	80,442	Bhimanna T. Naik		Indian National Congress	49,034	31,408
5	86	Hirekerur	B.C. Patil		Bharatiya Janata Party	85,562	Bannikod Basappa Hanumantappa		Indian National Congress	56,495	29,067
6	87	Ranebennur	Arunkumar Guththur (M M P)		Bharatiya Janata Party	95,438	K B Koliwad		Indian National Congress	72,216	23,222
7	90	Vijayanagara	Anand Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party	85,477	V.Y. Ghorpade		Indian National Congress	55,352	30,125
8	141	Chikkaballapur	K. Sudhakar		Bharatiya Janata Party	84,389	M. Anjanappa		Indian National Congress	49,588	34,801
9	151	Krishnarajapuram	B.A.Basavaraja		Bharatiya Janata Party	1,39,879	M.Narayanaswamy		Indian National Congress	76,436	63,443
10	153	Yeshvanthapura	S. T. Somashekar		Bharatiya Janata Party	1,44,722	T.N. Javarayi Gowda		Janata Dal (Secular)	1,17,023	27,699
11	156	Mahalakshmi Layout	K Gopalaiah		Bharatiya Janata Party	85,889	M. Shivaraju		Indian National Congress	31,503	54,386
12	162	Shivajinagar	Rizwan Arshad		Indian National Congress	49,890	M. Saravana		Bharatiya Janata Party	36,369	13,521
13	178	Hoskote	Sharath Kumar Bachegowda		Independent	81,671	M T B Nagaraj		Bharatiya Janata Party	70,185	13,521
14	192	Krishnarajpet	Narayan Gowda		Bharatiya Janata Party	66,094	B. L. Devaraj		Janata Dal (Secular)	56,363	9,731
15	212	Hunsur	H. P. Manjunath		Indian National Congress	92,725	Adagur H. Vishwanath		Bharatiya Janata Party	52,998	39,727

Gains by BJP

The bypolls were necessitated because 15 MLAs, from Congress and Janata Dal (S), resigned to bring down Kumaraswamy's coalition government. BJP won 12 out of 15 seats. But 3 seats escaped its grasp. Roshan Beg from Shivajinagar had resigned. But BJP did not allow Roshan Baig to join them, and he did not contest the bypoll. Congress retained the seat. From Hoskote, MTB Nagaraj resigned his seat and joined BJP who nominated him from his former seat. But a BJP rebel challenged him, and the rebel won. From Hunsur (Hunasuru), Adagur Vishwanath had won on JD(S) ticket, defeating Manjunath of Congress. He resigned, and contested as BJP candidate this time. But this time Manjunath managed to win the seat for Congress.

See also

• Elections in Karnataka
• Government of Karnataka
• Karnataka Legislative Assembly