BENGALURU: Congress candidate Munirathna secured a comfortable win over his rivals in the Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency on Thursday. With this the Congress strength in the state assembly has increased to 79.
The recent Congress-JDS alliance against BJP in Karnataka did not prevent a triangular contest here, where JD(S) came a distant third. Munirathna got a total of 1,08,064 votes, which was 25,492 more than his nearest rival T Muniraju Gowda of BJP, who got 82,572 votes. JD(S) candidate G H Ramachandra, who was expected to give a tough fight to Munirathna, came third with 60,360 votes. NOTA option received 2,724 votes - which is the fourth highest.
Munirathna is one of the persons named in an FIR regarding alleged election fraud, wherein around 9,500 EPIC cards were recovered from an apartment in the constituency. Following the recovery, Election Commission had deferred the polls in the constituency to May 28 and counting to May 31.
With Munirathna's victory, the combined strength of Congress-JD(S) coalition along with the support of two MLAs from different parties has increased to 118 while Congress strength alone has increased to 79BJP has 104 seats in the 224-member Legislative Assembly. Congress also improved its performance in Bengaluru, taking its tally to 14, in the 27 seats where polls were held. Jayanagar will vote on June 11. Polling was deferred in Jayanagar constituency due to the death of BJP candidate B N Vijayakumar.
Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said the victory symbolised the support the people of Karnataka have extended for the JD(S)-Congress coalition in the State. Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said that Munirathna's victory by such a large margin indicated that people of the constituency preferred him and voted for his work.
BENGALURU TALLY
Total seats 28
Congress 14
BJP 11
JD(S) 2
(Jayanagar goes to polls on June 11)