Congress-JDS alliance sweeps Karnataka by-elections; BJP retains just one seat

BENGALURU: The Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) combine swept the Karnataka by-election results on Tuesday by winning four out of the five seats and decimating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's wife Anita won the Ramanagara Assembly seat with a massive margin of 1,09,137 votes while Congress's Anand Nyamagouda bagged the Jamkhandi Assembly seat with a margin of 39,480 votes. The twin victories have also taken the Congress-JDS to 120 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly. The BJP has 104 MLAs in the state. 

JDS' LR Shivarame Gowda and Congress' VS Ugrappa bagged Mandya and Bellary Lok Sabha constituencies by huge margins of 3,24,943 and 2,43,161 votes respectively. BJP retained its Shimoga LS seat where BY Raghavendra Karnataka won by a margin of over 52,000 votes.

In all, 31 candidates were in the fray, including five from the BJP, three from JDS and two from Congress, while the remaining were Independents.

The results of these byelections are expected to have an impact on the equations between the Congress and JDS for the 2019 polls and also be a factor in determining the respective bargaining power of the two parties.

The Lok Sabha by-elections were held to fill vacancies caused by the resignation of its three sitting members -BJP`s Yeddyurappa from Shimoga and Sriramaulu from Bellary and C. Puttaraju of the JD-S from Mandya on being elected to the assembly in the May 12 elections.

The Ramanagara by-poll was held to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Kumaraswamy, who retained the adjacent Channapatna assembly segment after contesting and winning from both the seats in the May 12 state elections.

Bypolls to Jamkhandi assembly seat was caused by the death of Congress MLA Siddu Nyamagouda. 

Counting of votes began at 8 am at five centres, one each in five constituencies.