KA-BYPOLLS-LD RESULTS


PTI | Bengalu | Updated: 06-11-2018 13:37 IST | Created: 06-11-2018 13:37 IST
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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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