HAVERI: Congress candidate Srinivas Mane has won the Hanagal bypoll by 7,598 votes.
Hanagal assembly constituency is in Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's home district. It was the first election in Karnataka after Bommai came to power.
The counting began at Government Engineering College in Devagiri near Haveri on Tuesday morning. Congress candidate Mane got the lead from the first round itself and it continued to 19 rounds (last round). Congress got 87,113 and BJP 79,515 votes. In the postal votes, BJP got 236, Congress 184, and JDS only 4 votes.
In the early rounds of counting, the lead was less than 200 votes for Congress. Later the lead increased in all rounds. Mane, who was in Hubballi, headed to Haveri after he came to know that he got a lead of more than 5,000 votes.
Supporters of both BJP and Congress gathered near the counting centre in Haveri. As the leads were declared, Congress party workers raised slogans in favour of Mane, Congress state president DK Shivakumar, and former CM Siddaramaiah. The supporters of the BJP gradually decamped from the counting centre as the winning difference increased.
An EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) with votes from Kanchinegaluru developed a technical snag while counting. The officials then counted the slips of VVPAT.
Winning candidate Srinivas Mane visited the counting centre and expressed his happiness. "Money power lost and people's power won in this bypoll. Our (Congress) leaders put a lot of effort to counter the tricks of the BJP government to win the poll. People have given an answer to the bad administration of the BJP government in the state," Mane said.