Congress-jd-s trounces BJP 4-1 in Karnataka

BENGALURU: In a Diwali gift ahead of 2019 general election, the Jd-s-congress coalition on Tuesday worsted the BJP 4-1 in the Karnataka by-elections, winning two Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies, while conceding the Shimoga parliamentary seat to the saffron party.

It was a resounding victory for the ruling coalition in just six months after the May 12 assembly elections, which had returned a hung verdict, forcing the Congress and Janata Dalsecular to come together to form a coalition government on May 23.

Hailing the victory, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy called for opposition parties to unite under the leadership of Congress President Rahul Gandhi to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the next year’s Lok Sabha elections, as people were looking for an alternative.

While the JD-S and the Congress won the Mandya and Bellary (ST) Lok Sabha seats, they also bagged the Ramanagaram and Jamkhandi Assembly seats.

The Congress scored a major victory wresting the BJP’S citadel in Bellary (reserved) Lok Sabha seat, where its candidate V S Ugrappa defeated BJP’S J Shantha by a margin of 2,43,161 votes.

Ugrappa polled 6,28,365 votes against 3,85,204 secured by Shantha, sister of BJP leader B Sriramulu, a close associate of the controversial mining Reddy brothers.

The by-election was held in the Lok Sabha constituency, which was a BJP bastion since 2004, after Sriramulu resigned following his election to the state Assembly from Molakalmuru (reserved) seat in the adjacent Chitradurga district in May.