Here is the lowdown of the each state and parties.
"All the necessary permissions were given and the marriage was performed in a simple manner. There is no need to discuss about it. They had done it well within their limits for which I congratulate them," Yediyurappa said to a query from reporters during the post-COVID-19 briefing.
The rising pitch of road shows and long rallies with hectoring pitches seem to have exhausted and numbed the audiences, rather than motivating them to vote for the party, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
After a series of deliberations, the BJP on Tuesday announced its first list of 189 candidates and a second list of 23 on Wednesday night.
The by-elections are seen as a prestigious popularity test for the ruling Congress-Janata Dal-Secular coalition, as the outcome is expected to have a bearing on the state's political scene.
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Old Mysuru region, the community's stronghold, comprises Ramanagara, Mandya, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu, Kolar, Tumakuru and Hassan districts.
There are 18 assembly constituencies in the border district which is a Lingayat stronghold and has been a BJP bastion in the last two decades.
Many in the party feel it has played a critical role in boosting the Congress' electoral fortunes in the state and its impact is there for everyone to see.
With numbers on its side -- the ruling NDA has about half the votes of the electoral college -- and the possible support of fence-sitters like the BJD, the AIADMK and the YSRCP, the NDA candidate will likely sail through the contest.
In a historic transition, the Parliament moved into a swanky new complex on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging MPs to forget all past bitterness and start a new chapter and the introduction of the women's reservation bill taking centre stage.
JD-S sources read it as an attempt by Modi to sow seeds of doubt in the Opposition ranks.
Nikhil, son of former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, tied the nuptial knot with Revathi, the grand-niece of former Karnataka housing minister M Krishnappa. The marriage was solemnised at Kumaraswamy's Kethaganahalli farmhouse at Bidadi in the neighbouring Ramanagara district, a JD-S stronghold.
Sources said while the Janata Dal-Secular will have nine new ministers, the Congress will have nearly 12 of its legislators inducted into the cabinet. Lone Bahujan Samaj Party MLA N Mahesh will also be a part of the cabinet expansion and will be given a key portfolio.
While Shivakumar is as usual contesting from Kanakapura, Siddaramaiah is returning to his home turf of Varuna in Mysuru district, which is currently represented by his son Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah.
Kharge also urged voters to take pride in the fact that he as a bhoomi putra of Karnataka had been made All India Congress Committee president, and sought a win for the Congress in that name.
The ULB polls were also considered as indicative of the voters' mood before the next Lok Sabha elections.
Kharge, who was popularly known as "solillada Saradara", (a leader without defeat) faced his first electoral loss in his political life spanning several decades against BJP's Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday reiterated that upcoming assembly elections will be his last electoral battle, but he will remain active in Karnataka politics.
The June 23 meeting of opposition parties, called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, will see anti-BJP players chalk out a strategy for the Lok Sabha polls.
In an election where every seat will matter, micro-strategising is going to be the order of the day. And in such a situation, party infighting - in all parties --could lead to unpredictable results.
The Janata Dal-Secular leader also said that he may move the confidence of motion on May 24.
Congress leadership would take a call on who would be its deputy chief minister on Tuesday.
Seeking to consolidate its position in Rajya Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party is banking on independents for four additional seats and is seeking to capitalise on the infighting within the Congress in as many states in the June 10 biennial election.
The new CM said the coalition government will work for the people and was not here to fulfil personal interests.
'Why is the entire Cabinet running around in Bangalore?' 'Why are they making arrangements for horse-trading?' 'Is this not the BJP's greed for power?' 'They have won the entire country. Why are they so desperate for Karnataka?'
The JD-S, which has 34 seats in the assembly, is not in a position to win a seat in Rajya Sabha on its own and will need support from the Congress with its surplus votes. A minimum of 44 votes are required for candidates to win. If he wins, this will be the second Rajya Sabha entry for 87-year-old Gowda, the first time being in 1996 as PM.
Congress's K R Ramesh Kumar will be the speaker of Karnataka's Vidhana Soudha (assembly), while the deputy speaker will be appointed from the JD-S.
The BJP needs to win at least six of the seats to remain in majority in the 225-member assembly (including the Speaker, who has a casting vote), which would still have two vacant seats -- Maski and R R Nagar.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party but fell nine short of a majority, while the Congress, JD-S stitch alliance to keep saffron party out.
The Shiromani Akali Dal skipped the meeting, besides the Aam Aadmi Party, the TRS and the BJD.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's comprehensive defeat to the Congress in Karnataka where the two parties ran a campaign of contrasts has left the ruling party much to ponder as the two rivals are facing a direct contest in three more state polls this year in the run-up to the all-important 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Kumaraswamy agreed that the coming assembly elections were a "battle for survival" for the JD-S as it was out of power for 10 years.
The MLAs in the letter said they feel threatened, and requested the police to stop any Congress leader from meeting them.
Amid growing chorus from Siddaramaiah's camp in Karnataka Congress to project him as the chief ministerial face of the party for the 2023 assembly polls, his son and Varuna MLA on Wednesday asserted that his father has a chance to become CM once again.
The court struck down the portion of the Speaker's order by which the legislators were disqualified till the end of the 15th Karnataka assembly.
'Majority of the workers are not interested in the coalition'
Rahul Gandhi deliberately kept himself in the background, because he knew he is yet to achieve the stature to talk to a politician as senior as Deve Gowda.
Fourteen ministers are from the Congress, nine from its ruling coalition partner Janata Dal-Secular and one each from the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party.
Former chief minister of Karnataka B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday asked his party BJP's State president Nalin Kumar Kateel to refrain from making disparaging remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
