|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 224 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka 113 seats needed for a majority |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 70.23% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Fourteenth legislative assembly election was held on 5 May 2013 to elect members from 223 constituencies in the Indian state of Karnataka. Five major political parties contested the election: Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)), B. S. Yeddyurappa's Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) and B. Sriramulu's Badavara Shramikara Raitara Congress Party (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 the erstwhile Janata Parivar leader 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.
In 2008, the BJP under the leadership of B. S. Yeddyurappa, a powerful Lingayat leader, 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 MLA's. The BJP thus came to power for the first time ever in South India. Yeddyurappa became the Chief Minister of Karnataka.