The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looked set to cement its government's position in Karnataka on Monday, leading in 12 of the 15 seats in the bypolls. The victory in these seats will give the party a clear hold on power until 2023 when the current assembly term ends. These bypolls were seen as a crucial test of Karnataka’s shaky politics. Since May 2018 state elections threw a hung assembly, uncertainty over numbers had prevailed. That looks largely settled now in Karnataka’s 224-member Legislative Assembly, where the BJP needed 8 seats to get past the majority mark.