Congress wrests seat from BJP, leads in another, BJP ahead in one

BANGALORE: The ruling Congress in Karnataka today wrested the Bellary Rural seat from BJP and was ahead in another constituency as counting of votes for the prestigious by-polls held on August 21 was taken up this morning.

Congress' N Y Gopalakrishna trounced BJP's Obalesh by an impressive margin of over 33,000 votes in Bellary Rural, electoral officials said.

The Bellary Rural seat was won by B Sriramulu as BRS Congress candidate in the 2013 Assembly polls before he rejoined BJP. Sriramulu was elected to Lok Sabha in the 2014 polls from Bellary as BJP candidate.

BJP was ahead in Shikaripura, where its party National Vice-President B S Yeddyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra was leading by over 2,900 votes against Congress' H S Shantaveerappa Gowda in a close battle.

Shikaripura set had been won by Yeddyurappa seven times earlier, before he made his debut to Lok Sabha from Shimoga. In the 2013 Assembly polls, Yeddyurappa had won the seat as the candidate of Karnataka Janatha Paksha which he merged with BJP months ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

In Congress' traditional stronghold of Chikkodi-Sadalga, electoral officials said, its candidate Ganesh Prakash Hukkeri had established a lead of over 16,700 votes against BJP's Mahantesh Kavatagimath.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had invested heavy prestige into the by-elections with his party going all out not only to retain the seat held by it but also to capture the two from BJP.