Retaining the Nanjangud and Gundlupet Assembly seats has come not only as a morale booster for the ruling Congress Party in Karnataka, but has also helped Chief Minister Siddaramaiah silence his critics within the party.

The Congress Party surprised everyone by winning the seats for which by-elections were held on April 9.

The by-elections became a prestige battle and stakes were high for Siddaramaiah. Infact, the polls witnessed high-profile campaigning with more than 20 Ministers wooing voters in both the constituencies.

The principal Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too worked hard with its State president BS Yeddyurappa personally heading the campaign in the two constituencies. Though Yeddyurappa has considerable clout among the dominant Lingayat community, which forms a major chunk of voters in both the constituencies, his experiment with social engineering – Lingayats-Dalit combination — did not work.

The immediate impact of the win appears to be that the crossing over of disgruntled Congress leadersto the BJP has come to a temporary halt. The crossing over to the BJP, which gathered momentum with veteran leader SM Krishna joining the saffron party, had became a cause for concern for the Congress especially in the wake of Yeddyurappa repeatedly declaring that there will be a mass migration of senior Congress leaders to BJP after the by-elections.

While the results have strengthen Siddaramaiah’s position, it was a setback for Yeddyurappa’s election strategy as several party insiders feel that it is a wake-up call for him. They said it is a glaring lesson that the BJP State unit lacks the ability to pull off the show without the intervention of its Central leaders.

However, political analysts feel the results are an important political message that the other Opposition party, Janata Dal (Secular), can turn the political balance either way through clandestine support to either parties in old Mysore.

This is because the Congress victory would not have been possible if JDS, which polled around 41,000 votes in Nanjangud in the previous elections, had not abstained from joining the fray. Infact, it was the JDS candidate who saved the day for Congress by joining its fold and winning on its ticket in Nanjangud.