JD(S)-Congress blow to BJP ahead of 2019 general electuins

In an emphatic endorsement of Karnataka’s ruling JD(S)-Congress coalition by the voters, candidates from the alliance won two assembly constituencies and two of the three Lok Sabha seats in the by-polls held on Saturday.V. S. Ugrappa of the Congress has won the Ballari parliamentary seat with a margin of 2,41,656 votes over BJP’s J. Shantha, the sister of B. Sriramulu, a key aide of the Reddys and former MP from there.In the Shivamogga parliamentary seat, B. Y. Raghavendra, son of the Leader of the Opposition B. S. Yeyyurappa, has won by 47,000 votes over Madhu Bangarappa of the JD(S). Madhu is the son of former Congress chief minister the late S. Bangarappa.The Ramanagaram assembly seat was won by CM H. D. Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha by a spectacular margin of 1,09,137 against her nearest rival BJP’s L Chandrashekar, who had pulled out of the contest, but still officially remains the party candidate. Chandrashekhar, who had joined the BJP ahead of the polls, returned to Congress weeks later, leaving the saffron party red-faced and the field open for a walkover for Anitha Kumaraswamy. Ramanagara seat fell vacant after Kumaraswamy preferred to retain Chennapatna, the other constituency from where he had won.In Jamkhandi, Congress candidate Anand Nyamgouda defeated BJP’s Srikant Kulkarni by a margin of 39,480 votes, riding a sympathy wave following his father and sitting MLA Siddu Nyamagouda’s death in a road accident.In the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, JD(S) candidate L. Shivarame Gowda has won by a margin of 3,24,943 votes over BJP candidate Siddaramaiah, a political green horn and a former civil servant. Mandya is a stronghold of the Vokkaliga community to which JD(S) supremo and former prime minister H. D. Deve Gowda belongs. PTI