Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) BN Prahlad by a margin of 2,889 votes in the bypoll for the Jayanagar Assembly seat in Karnataka, on Wednesday, 13 June.
In the Karnataka Assembly elections, held on 12 May, the Congress had won 78 seats, second to the BJP's 104. Two weeks after the results were declared, Congress MLA Siddu Nyamagouda, from Jamkhandi constituency, died in a road accident. However, the party retained the RR Nagar seat on 31 May, and with the victory in Jayanagar, the Congress now has 79 legislators in the 224-seat Assembly.
Election to the Jayanagar constituency was countermanded after the death of BJP candidate and incumbent MLA BN Vijayakumar. The polling was conducted on Monday, 11 June, and more than 50 percent of the electorate turned out to vote.
A total of 19 candidates, including the BJP's Prahlad and the Congress' Reddy, contested the polls on Monday.
The Janata Dal (Secular) had on 5 June pulled-out its candidate and extended the party's support to its ruling coalition partner in Karnataka Assembly – the Congress.
Both the Congress and the JD(S) had fielded candidates against each other, despite being coalition partners, in the recent election to the Rajarajeshwari Nagar Assembly seat in the city. Congress candidate Munirathna won the seat, relegating the JD(S) candidate to a distant third behind the BJP.
The Congress and the JD(S) had forged an alliance after the poll results threw up a hung Assembly on 15 May. Even though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party in the state with 104 seats, its CM designate BS Yeddyurappa failed to prove a majority on the floor of the house. Days later, JD(S)’s HD Kumaraswamy, with the Congress' support, was sworn-in as the chief minister of the state.
(With inputs from PTI)
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