Blow to BJP
CONGRESS-JANATA DAL-S COALITION WINS FOUR SEATS IN BYPOLLS CONCEDING ONLY ONE TO THE SAFFRON PARTY
In a stunning blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the Janata Dal -Secular Congress coalition yesterday defeated the saffron party 4-1 in the Karnataka by-elections, winning two Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies, while conceding only the Shimoga parliamentary seat. In what was considered the semi-final ahead of the next year’s general elections, it was a resounding victory for the ruling coalition in just six months after the May 12 elections.
In a stunning blow to the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the JD-SCongress coalition yesterday beat the saffron party 4-1 in the Karnataka by-elections, winning two Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies, while conceding only the Shimoga parliamentary seat.
In what was considered the semi-final ahead of the next year’s general elections, 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 Dal-Secular 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 243,161 votes.
Ugrappa polled 628,365 votes against 385,204 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, a BJP bastion since 2004, after Sriramulu resigned following his election to the state Assembly in May.
The BJP had pulled all stops during the campaigning to ensure a victory for Shantha, who represented the constituency from 2009-14.
In the JD-S stronghold of Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, its candidate L. Shivarame Gowda won by a huge margin of 324,943 votes over BJP’s Siddaramaiah. The BJP, however, managed to win the Shimoga Lok Sabha seat where its former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s son B.Y. Raghavendra defeated JD-S nominee Madhu Bangarappa, son of former chief minister late S. Bangarappa, by 52,148 votes majority. Raghavendra polled 5,43,306 votes against 4,91,158 by Madhu.
With Tuesday’s victory, the strength of the ruling coalition in the 224-member legislative assembly goes up to 120.