Siddaramaiah: 'Yediyurappa will have to resign after K'taka bypolls'

As the results of the assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana are becoming clearer, Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said current Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa will have to resign post the by-elections on 15 seats to be held in Karnataka on December 5. "As far as Karnataka is concerned, this (rebel MLAs losing) will repeat in all 15 constituency by-polls. We will win the majority of seats. The situation will be such that Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa will have to resign," Siddaramaiah told reporters in Bengaluru.

'People will make sure the defectors lose in Karnataka'

Siddaramaiah had earlier said that though it is unclear whether the results of Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections will have any effect on the by-polls scheduled for Karnataka, he asserted that the voters would make the rebel MLAs lose. "I cannot say that these election results will affect the by-polls here, but people will make sure the defectors lose here. In Maharashtra also the people have made sure the defectors lose in the polls," Siddaramaiah said. "In Gujarat by-polls the same thing has happened," Siddaramaiah added.

While the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has managed to retain Maharashtra, Haryana is seeing a close contest between the two national parties, with the BJP winning 39 seats and leading in one while Congress has won 31 seats out of the total 90 seats in the state, according to Election Commission of India's latest announcement at the time of publishing this article.

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By-elections in Karnataka to be held on December 5

By-elections to the 15 assembly seats in Karnataka are scheduled to be held on December 5. Earlier, the by-elections in Karnataka were scheduled to be held on October 21 in 15 constituencies that were vacated by rebel MLAs of Congress and JD(S). However, the election date was later shifted to December 5 by the Election Commission. Polling in 15 Assembly constituencies namely Athani, Kagwad, Gokak, Yellapur, Hirekerur, Ranibennur, Vijayanagara, Chikkaballapur, K R Pura, Yeshvanthapura, Mahalakshmi, Shivajinagar, Hosakote, Krishnarajpet, and Hunsur, will be conducted from 7 am to 6 pm on the date set by the EC.

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(With ANI inputs)