The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which held Bellary Lok Sabha constituency since 2004, lost the seat to the Congress on Tuesday.
Of the three Lok Sabha seats for which bypolls were held, two were in saffron control and one, Mandya, was held by Janata Dal (Secular). Bypolls were also held for two assembly segments – Jamkhandi and Ramanagara.
Congress’ VS Ugrappa won the Ballari parliamentary seat with a margin of 2,43,161 votes defeating J Shantha of the BJP.
Shantha, the sister of former MP B Sriramulu, was the MP from the seat in 2009. Sriramulu had won from the same seat in 2014 Lok Sabha elections before vacating it after he won from Molakalmuru in the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018.
Sriramulu is considered close to Bellary brothers – Karunakar Reddy, G Somashekhara Reddy and Gali Janardhan Reddy. He had also contested from Badami assembly constituency in 2018 but was defeated by Congress leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Congress last held the Bellary seat from 2000 to 2004 before Karunakar Reddy brought the BJP to power in the constituency located in North Karnataka.
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The BJP could retain only one of two Lok Sabha seats it held before the results. Shimoga, a traditional bastion of former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa, was won by his son BY Raghavendra with a margin of 52,148 votes defeating JD(S) nominee Madhu Bangarappa, the son of ex-chief minister S Bangarappa.
In Mandya, the third LS seat where bypolls were held, JD(S) nominee LR Shivaramegowda defeated BJP’s Dr Siddaramaiah by a margin of 3,24,943 votes. The constituency located in South Karnataka was previously represented in Parliament by JD(S)’s CS Puttaraju, who is now an MLA from Melkote and a minister in the Karnataka government.
In the bypolls held for two assembly segments, Jamkhandi and Ramanagara, the Congress-JD(S) coalition thumped the BJP.
Congress’ AS Nyamagouda won Jamkhandi assembly seat with a margin of 39,480 votes. In Ramanagaram, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha Kumaraswamy won comfortably by a huge margin of 1,09,137 votes. She is the first woman MLA to have won from the seat.
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Anita Kumaraswamy was expected to have a smooth sailing in Ramanagara, after BJP nominee L Chandrashekhar withdrew from the contest and rejoined the Congress.
HD Kumarawamy had won the seat along with Chhanapatna in the assembly elections held this year. He retained Chhanapatna and vacated Ramanagaram thus necessitating bypolls in the segment.