Bengaluru: In a late-night drama, BJP candidate CK Ramamurthy won the Jayanagar Assembly seat in Karnataka by a margin of mere 16 votes against Congress rival Soumya Reddy on Saturday sparking off angry reaction from the Congress, officials said on Sunday. The vote margin is the slimmest in the state so far.
Earlier, Jayanagar saw a close contest between BJP candidate CK Ramamurthy and Congress rival Sowmya Reddy. The tense situation was further fueled by clashes between supporters of both parties and security forces during multiple rounds of vote recounts, leading to heavy deployment of security personnel in the area.
Angry over his daughter Soumya's loss, senior Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy accused BJP leaders of electoral malpractice in which, he said, counting officials were influenced. Somya was “initially declared winner" of the seat by the Election Commission of India. "The result was announced by the officials at the Counting Centre at SS M RV College in Jaynagar" late on saturday, a state Information Department official said in a statement.
Tension mounted after the counting was taking place as the Congress state president DK Shivakumar along with state unit working president Ramalinga Reddy and many other leaders staged a protest march outside the polling booth, demanding justice. They alleged misuse of government machinery to favour Ramamurthy.
The Congress party clawed its way back to power in Karnataka, dethroning the BJP, by winning 135 seats, way more than the halfway mark. The BJP won a total of 66 seats while JD(S) could only manage 19 seats. The elections for 224 Assembly seats in the state were held on May 10 and the polled votes were taken up for counting on Saturday.
