With the trends indicating a victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 12 seats, the mood is upbeat in the BJP camp with party workers and leaders celebrating at the state office.
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa celebrated the early leads with his son BY Vijayendra who sought his father's blessings and greeted him with sweets.
The BJP candidates are leading from the Athani, Kagwad, Gokak, Yellapur, Hirekerur, Ranibennur, Vijayanagara, Chikkaballapur, K.R.Pura, Yeshvanthapura, Krishnarajapete and the Mahalakshmi Layout seats.
Two Congress candidates, on the other hand, are leading on the Hunasuru and Shivajinagar constituencies while an independent candidate, Sharath Kumar Bachegowda is also leading from the Hosakote seat in the initial phases of the counting.
K Gopalaiah, the BJP candidate from the Mahalakshmi Layout has the biggest margin of 32 thousand votes against Congress' M Shivaraja.
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On the other hand, Congress' HP Manjunath is also leading by a margin of 33 thousand votes against BJP's H Vishwanath from the Hunasuru seat.
The result will not just decide the fate of BJP government in the state but also of those thirteen rebel MLAs who had sought the re-election following their resignation from erstwhile Congress-JD(S) coalition.
Earlier Yediyurappa had confidently said that BJP will win at least 13 seats and the government will be "safeguarded".
The elections were held for 15 Assembly seats which were left vacant after the legislators resigned in July, triggering the collapse of the Congress-JDS coalition and paving the way for the BJP to come to power.
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