KA-BYPOLLS-LD RESULTS
- Country:
- India
In an emphatic endorsement of
Karnataka's ruling JD(S)-Congress coalition by the voters, its
candidates Tuesday won both the assemblyconstituencies and
are set to clinch two of the three Lok Sabha seats in the
bitterly fought by-polls held on Saturday, officials said.
The byelections came as a major setback for the main
opposition BJP ahead of the 2019 elections with the party set
to lose the Ballari Lok Sabha seat, considered a stronghold of
the controversial mining barons--the Reddy brothers.
V S Ugrappa of the Congress has established a lead of
more than 2.14 lakh votes in Ballari over BJP's J Shantha, the
sister of B Sriramulu, a key aide of the Reddys and former MP
from there.
The BJP is leading only in Shivamogga parliamentary
seat, the pocket borough of the Leader of the Opposition B S
Yeyyurappa. His son B Y Raghavendra has established a lead of
more than 51,000 votes over Madhu Bangarappa of the JD(S).
Madhu is the son of former Congress chief minister the late S
Bangarappa.
Counting was in the final stages for the Lok Sabha
seats, officials said.
Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha bagged
the Ramanagara assembly seat by a spectacular margin of
1,09,137 against her nearest rival BJP's L Chandrashekar, who
had pulled out of the contest, but still officially remains
the party candidate.
Chandrashekhar, who had joined the BJP ahead of the
polls returned to Congress weeks later, leaving the saffron
party red-faced and the field open for a walkover for Anitha
Kumaraswamy.
Ramanagara seat fell vacant after Kumaraswamy
preferred to retain Chennapatna, the other constituency from
where he had won.
In Jamkhandi, Congress candidate Anand Nyamgouda
defeated BJP's Srikant Kulkarni by a margin of 39,480 votes,
riding a sympathy wave following his father and sitting MLA
Siddu Nyamagouda's death in a road accident.
With Tuesday's victory, the Congress-JD(S) alliance's
tally will go up to 120 seatsin the 224 member assembly where
the BJP has 104 MLAs.
In Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, JD(S) candidate L
Shivarame Gowda has established a lead of a staggering 3.24
lakh votes over BJP candidate Siddaramaiah, a political green
horn and a former civil servant.
Mandya is a stronghold of the Vokkaliga community to
which JD(S) supremo and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda
belongs.
Elated over the performance of the ruling alliance
candidates, jubilant Congress workers distributed sweets and
broke coconuts at various places.
Karnataka Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao claimed
the results reflected the disenchantment of people with the
BJP.
"Look at the margins...it's clear that people are fed
up with the BJP. This anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-women
government at the Centre must go.
"All forces need to come together to take on the BJP.
BJP will be wiped out of Karnataka in 2019 (Lok Sabha polls).
If it is wiped out in Karnataka, it will be wiped out in the
entire south India," he said.
Karnataka is the only south Indian state where the BJP
has been in power.
The by-elections for three Lok Sabha seats were
necessitated after Yeddyurappa and Sriramulu of the BJP and C
S Puttaraju of the JD(S) vacated Shivamogga, Ballari and
Mandya following their election to the assembly in May.
Bypolls to Jamkhandi seat was necessitated following
the death of sitting Congress MLA Siddu Nyamagouda, while
Ramanagara fellvacant after Kumaraswamy gave it up.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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- South India
- Indian general election
- 2009
- List of Chief Ministers of Karnataka
- B. Y. Raghavendra
- List of Presidents of the Indian National Congress
- Mandya (Lok Sabha constituency)
- Leader of the Opposition (India)
- H. D. Kumaraswamy
- Dinesh Gundu Rao
- Madhu Bangarappa
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