The 2013 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election was held on 5 May 2013 to elect members from 223 constituencies in the

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

n state of

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Kar ...

. Five major political parties contested the election:

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...

(INC),

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

(BJP),

Janata Dal (Secular) The Janata Dal (Secular) is an Indian political party led by former prime minister of India, H. D. Deve Gowda. The party is recognized as a State Party in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh. It was formed in July 1999 by t ...

(JD(S)),

B. S. Yeddyurappa Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa (born 27 February 1943), often referred to by his initials BSY, is an Indian politician currently serving as the member of the Bharatiya Janata Party National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Parl ...

's Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) and B. Sriramulu's

Badavara Shramikara Raitara Congress The Badavara Shramikara Raithara (BSR) Congress was a political party based in Karnataka state. It was founded in 2011 by B. Sriramulu, a former minister in the Government of Karnataka, Karnataka State Government. In the 2013 Karnataka Legislati ...

(BSRCP). Though Karnataka has 224 assembly constituencies, elections were held only for 223 seats. The election for the Piriyapatna constituency was postponed to 28 May 2013 due to the death of the BJP candidate for the seat. The voter turnout in the state was 70.23%. The INC under the leadership of Siddaramaiah won the election with an absolute majority of 122 seats (including the Piriyapatna seat), 9 more than the majority mark of 113. As a result, the INC returned to power on its own after nine years with Siddaramaiah becoming the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Background

In 2008, the BJP under the leadership of B. S. Yeddyurappa, won 110 seats, emerging as the single largest party. As the party did not have a majority of its own, having not won 113+ seats, it had to form a government with the support of a few

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

MLA's. The BJP thus came to power for the first time in South India with Yeddyurappa becoming the Chief Minister of Karnataka. However, the five years in which BJP was in power in Karnataka was not smooth and was mired in many controversies. A few months after coming to power, the BJP encouraged Congress and JD(S) MLA's to defect to the BJP to boost its strength in the assembly. Yeddyurappa had to face many revolts over his style of functioning from the Reddy brothers ( Karunakara, Somashekara and

Janardhana Janardana () is an epithet of Vishnu in the Puranas. Janardana means, “he who is the original abode and protector of all living beings”. Literature In the Mahabharata, Sanjaya uses this epithet of Vishnu to describe the latter's prowess to ...

) and B. Sriramulu, a faction led by Balachandra Jarkiholi and the old BJP loyalists led by Ananth Kumar. Janardhana Reddy was arrested in the Bellary illegal mining scam in 2011. Some BJP leaders like Katta Subramanya Naidu, Ess Enn Krishnaiah Setty and Yeddyurappa were imprisoned for some time for their role in individual land scams. Yeddyurappa and Kumaraswamy of JD(S) were accused of encouraging illegal mining, though were cleared later by the High Court of Karnataka. In its five years of rule, the BJP had three Chief Ministers. Yeddyurappa was forced to resign as Chief Minister in July 2011 due to his alleged involvement in a land scam. He was replaced by his handpicked successor and loyalist D. V. Sadananda Gowda, who faced a challenge from Jagadish Shettar, the Chief Minister choice for Yeddyurappa's opponents in the BJP. However, Gowda soon fell out with Yeddyurappa and the latter began to revolt against him, threatening to quit the BJP if Gowda was not removed. The BJP High Command replaced Gowda with Shettar, only 11 months after he became Chief Minister. Shettar was another Lingayat BJP leader whom Yeddyurappa opposed becoming his successor just less than a year ago as they were from the same caste. In local body elections, the Congress and the JD(S) won more seats while the BJP was pushed to third. In the by-election to the Udupi Chimagalur

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-pas ...

seat held in March 2012, the Congress won. Yeddyurappa quit the BJP in November 2012 and formed his own party, the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP). Previously, Sriramulu had quit the BJP in 2011 to form the

(BSR Congress) after Janardhana Reddy was imprisoned. These splits weakened the BJP.

Election

The election was held in a single phase on 5 May 2013 for 223 out of total 224 seats. A voter turnout of 70.23% was recorded. 50,446 polling stations were set up for the 41.8 million voters in Karnataka. The election in the constituency of Periyapatna was adjourned due to the death of the BJP candidate, Sannamogegowda, a day before polls.

Results

!colspan=10, , - ! colspan="2" rowspan="2" width="150" , Parties and Coalitions ! colspan="3" , Popular vote ! colspan="4" , Seats , - ! width="70" , Vote ! width="45" , % ! width ="50", +/- ! Contested ! Won !+/- !% , - , ,

, 11,473,025 , 36.6 , 1.8 , 223 , 122 , 43 , 54.46 , - , ,

, 6,329,158 , 20.2 , 1.1 , 222 , 40 , 12 , 17.86 , - , ,

, 6,236,227 , 19.9 , 13.9 , 222 , 40 , 72 , 17.86 , - , , Karnataka Janata Paksha , 3,069,207 , 9.8 , 9.8 , 204 , 6 , 6 , 2.68 , - , Bgcolor=#00308F, ,

, 844,588 , 2.7 , 2.7 , 176 , 4 , 4 , 1.79 , - , , Samajwadi Party , 105,948 , 0.3 , 0.6 , 27 , 1 , 1 , 0.45 , - , bgcolor=#DB7093, , Karnataka Makkala Paksha , 55867 , 0.2 , 0.2 , 7 , 1 , 1 , 0.44 , - , bgcolor=#ADE879, , Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha , 109,039 , 0.4 , 0.1 , 6 , 1 , 1 , 0.44 , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Independents , 2,313,386 , 7.4 , 0.5 , 1217 , 9 , 3 , 4.02 , - , colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" , Other parties and candidates , 816,009 , 2.6 , , 644 , 0 , , 0.0 , - ! colspan="9" , , - style="font-weight:bold;" , style="text-align:left;" colspan="2", Total , 31,352,454 , 100.00 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , 2948 , 224 , ±0 , 100.0 , - ! colspan="9" , , - , colspan="2" style="text-align:left; , Valid votes , 31,352,454 , 99.91 , , colspan="4" rowspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , , - , colspan="2" style="text-align:left; , Invalid votes , 28,682 , 0.09 , , - , colspan="2" style="text-align:left; , Votes cast / turnout , 31,381,136 , 71.83 , , - , colspan="2" style="text-align:left; , Abstentions , 12,304,603 , 28.17 , , - , colspan="2" style="text-align:left; , Registered voters , 43,685,739 , colspan="2" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , , - ! colspan="9" , , - , colspan="9" style="text-align:left; , Source: Election Commission of India , -

Results by Constituency

Source. ;Notes

Aftermath

Following the defeat, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar submitted his resignation on 8 May. Governor H. R. Bharadwaj later appointed INC legislative leader Siddaramaiah as the next chief minister. The next election was held in May 2018.

References

External links

* {{Karnataka elections State Assembly elections in Karnataka 2010s in Karnataka 2013 State Assembly elections in India 14th Karnataka Legislative Assembly