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Updated: Aug 03, 2020 03:46 IST

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Monday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah after bypoll results and trends showed the party leading in 12 of the 15 seats that voted last week. The chief minister added that as promised all ‘defectors’ from JD(S) and the Congress, who contested and won, would be given ministerial berths.

The BJP had come to power in July this year after 17 Congress and Janata Dal Secular lawmakers were disqualified from the assembly under the anti-defection law, toppling the previous HD Kumaraswamy government. BS Yediyurappa, who came to power with a wafer-thin majority soon after, needed to win 6 out of the 15 seats to hold on to his chair. He is going to get twice as many and will have the support of 117 members besides one independent in the 224-member assembly.

“In next few days will go to Delhi to discuss with high command and as promised will induct them into cabinet. Especially happy that we won the seat in K R Pete where Bookankere my native place is located. I would like to thank our national leaders PM Modi and Amit Shah,” Yediyurappa said in Bengaluru.

Thanking PM Modi and Amit Shah for the party’s good show, the Chief Minister added: “There was trouble due to instability. Now with results, I hope Congress and JD(S) will co-operate with us to provide good governance for next three and a half years.”

The BJP took early lead as the counting of votes began on Monday and in just two hours, the party had a clear lead in 12 of the 15 seats. The Congress held the 12 of the 15 seats and the JD (S) the remaining three. Senior Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar was the first to accept defeat saying: “We have to agree with the mandate of the voters of these 15 constituencies. People have accepted the defectors. We have accepted defeat,” Shivakumar said, according to news agency ANI.

The lead in Krishnarajapete (KR Pete), a rural seat in the JD(S)’s stronghold of old Mysuru, was most encouraging for the BJP. It was one of the seats where the JD(S) leaders had deployed its heavyweight campaigners and asked voters to teach the defectors a lesson. HD Kumaraswamy, one of the prominent JDS leaders to campaign in the constituency, had asked people to punish the defector Naryana Gowda. Naryana Gowda secured about 37 percent votes, ahead of the JD(S) candidate BL Devaraj.