BackKarnataka polls: Shivakumar stages ‘dharna’ after BJP's Jayanagar victory by 16 votes
After a neck-to-neck competition between Congress and BJP candidate, BJP's C K Ramamurthy's won the Jayanagar constituency by a slim margin of 16 votes
PremiumAs the slim margin between the two contenders in Jayanagar vote counting session maintained suspense about the winner, victory of BJP's CK Ramamurthy by 16 votes resulted in a high-voltage drama in the constituency. Calling the election a ‘misuse of government machinery to favour BJP’, Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar staged a ‘dharna’ in front of the counting centre in Jayanagar.
Notably, BJP's CK Ramamurthy received 57797 votes while Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy secured 57781 votes, thus facing defeat with 16 votes. After this, Congress party leaders began to protest on Saturday. Later, the protest was joined by DK Shivakuma at the counting centre on Saturday.
BJP's CK Ramamurthy was declared winner after the leader defeated his Congress rival by a slim margin of 16 votes. D Shivakumar alleged that BJP's Tejaswi Surya and R Ashok were allpwed inside the counting centre.
It is worth noting that DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah are the prime contenders for Chief Ministerial post in the state. This Assembly elections, Congress won one of its biggest victories in the state. The party had won 135 seats in the state which is its highest score in past four decades. DK Shivakumar defeated JD(S) B Nagaraju in the Kanakapura constituency in the Karnataka Assembly election on Saturday by 1,22,392 votes.
With its landslide victory, Congress pushed Karnataka out of power in the state. For BJP, this defeat marked its exit from the only southern state it ruled.
BJP managed to secure 66 seats in the state. The third competing party, which used to hold strong local presence, Janata Dal Secular (JDS) bagged 19 seats. Two independent candidates won while Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha won one seat each.
The grand old party maintained its lead since the early phase of vote counting which was held on Saturday. Some regards Rahul Gandhi's ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ to be one of the main reasons behind Congress' victory.
After the defeat of BJP, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday resigned from his post by tendering his resignation to Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot.
"I have tendered my resignation and it has been accepted," Bommai told reporters. Basavaraj Bommai won the election with a margin of 35,978 votes from Shiggaon constituency. Karnataka voted to elect representatives for 224 constituencies on May 10.
(With inputs from ANI)
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