In the second phase on April 18, 97 seats,spread across 13 states and one Union Territory, will go to the polls.
Political parties were bracing for the assembly election results on Thursday in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and politically volatile Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, sending out feelers for possible post-poll tie-ups.
Major political parties in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday ensured victory for all their candidates despite cross voting in Rajya Sabha biennial polls in which senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal emerged triumphant against the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Independent socialite Preeti Mahapatra.
Ramesh Jarkiholi got the plum portfolio of major and medium irrigation which he was eyeing. Anand Singh got food, civil supplies and consumers affairs portfolio, Srimant Patil was given textile while K Gopalaiah has been assigned small scale industries.
"The Supreme court allowing us to contest election is important to us. We welcome it... We are politicians... This verdict is important to us," disqualified Janata Dal-Secular MLA from Hunsur A H Vishwanath told reporters in New Delhi.
The invitation to opposition leaders is seen as Modi's move to reach out to them following the fiercely fought election in which the BJP registered a massive victory.
He had changed the spelling of his name from Yediyurappa to Yeddyurappa after he had to resign as chief minister in 2007.
The BJP will need to win at least six seats to remain in power.
'... in the form of possible payments to MLAs and horse-trading for the BJP to win.'
Yeddyurappa claimed Kumaraswamy would fail to save the coalition government.
The 14 MLAs who had resigned earlier this month include Pratapgouda Patil, BC Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, ST Somashekhar, BA Basavaraja, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, Munirathna, K Sudhakar, MTB Nagaraj, AH Vishwanath, K Gopalaiah, Narayana Gowda and Shrimanth Patil.
The Karnataka CM with only 37 JD-S MLAs in the assembly is on shaky ground and overly dependent on the Congress for every decision, reports Bibhu Ranjan Mishra.
The Congress has convened a CLP meeting on Friday ahead of budget presentation and warned its MLAs that absence would invite action under the Anti-Defection Law.
The results announced in the elections to the 224-member Karnataka assembly:
Nagaraj reached Mumbai accompanied by Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa's personal assistant Santosh and BJP MLA R Ashok.
'The results show that he is the best person to manage individuals in the party.'
Even as Janata Dal-Secular leader Veerendrakumar says that he will vote against the United Progressive Alliance in the trust vote even if a whip to support the motion is issued, the JD-S camp in Bengaluru maintains that the party is united and there will be no difference of opinion.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made a last-ditch attempt to woo the three JD(S) MPs to vote in favour of the government in the trust vote on July 22.
Kumaraswamy's remarks assumed significance in the backdrop of former home minister Prakash rushing to Delhi on Friday to continue talks with Congress leaders in a bid to concretise efforts for government formation proposal.
Karnataka Ministers, who moved a court in Bengaluru seeking injunction against the media from publishing or airing anything 'defamatory or unauthenticated' against them, on Saturday said it was a precautionary measure against a 'big political conspiracy' targetting them.
The chief minister, who had on Wednesday expanded his new cabinet by inducting 29 ministers, had played it safe by and large retaining old faces, as 23 of them were Ministers in the previous Yediyurappa cabinet, while six were new.
Those present in the jam-packed courtroom number six burst into laughter when the judge shared his moment of coming across this funny stuff on Whatsapp.
'This is an artificial wave created by the BJP by using the money that they collect from corporates. Modi's attacks on the regional fronts are more out of fear, since he feels that we may hurt his ambition to become prime minister,' the JD-S's HD Kumaraswamy tells Vicky Nanjappa in an interview.
The chief minister said he has certain compulsions as a politician.
The petition was filed by a few independent legislators in which they sought the disqualification of the JDS legislators after they entered into an alliance with the BJP 21 months back and formed the government without the approval of the party high command.
The 12 conditions had been drawn up by JD-S supremo H D Deve Gowda and given to BJP president Rajnath Singh while negotiations for the coalition were going on. Gowda had made it clear that his party will support the BJP in government formation only if all these conditions are fulfilled.
Azad and Gehlot have reached Bengaluru and have met chief minister Siddharamaiah and other party leaders.
Naidu met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and discussed with him the possibilities of all opposition parties uniting and forging a joint opposition alliance.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh said the government formation in Karnataka should be on the basis of the agreement entered into between his party and the JD (S) 19 months ago.
The Congress also said it will not make any move, unless the BJP ministers actually hand over their resignations to the governor.
In spite of the JD (S) flip-flopping on the issue of power transfer in Karnataka, its ally Bhartiya Janata Party is hopeful that the JD-S will keep its side of the bargain, party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.
'Voters did not turn up in large numbers in Bangalore.' 'If more voters of Bangalore had come to vote, we would definitely have reached the magic figure.'
Besides the SAD, the SP, the AIADMK and the TRS supported the idea; while the AAP, the TDP, the JD-S, the AIFB, the DMK, the TMC, the GFP and Left parties opposed it.
No chief minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal-Secular could manage to complete the full term in Karnataka.
The fall of the Congress-led government through a political coup leading to a new Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition and the arrest of two Pakistani militants made 2006 an eventful year for Karnataka.
The Congress also said they would mention the matter before the Supreme Court on Monday.
The netas have put on their thinking caps and day in and day out they seem to be planning their strategy to face the poll, which is round the corner in Karnataka.
"They call themselves the champions of speech and expression. But deny the same for the people of Kerala."
These MLAs are Anand Singh, K Sudhakar, N Nagaraj, Munirathna and Roshan Baig.
Congress' Sowmya Reddy secured 54,457 votes against her nearest rival from the BJP.
