Karnataka bypolls: Euphoria in Congress as grand old party wins handsomely, BJP licking sore wounds

In the Karnataka bypolls held in Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur, the Congress has won handsomely, thereby beating the anti-incumbency wave. Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy contested the Channapatna bypolls on a BJP-JDS ticket. He suffered ignominy as he faced humiliating defeat at the hands of CP Yogeshwar who enjoyed a victory margin of more than 25,000 votes.

Also read: Karnataka bypolls: Energised by victroy in all 3 constituencies; Siddaramaiah criticises BJP

In Shiggaon, another BJP bigwig and former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai’s son Bharat Bommai ended up losing to Congress’s Yasir Khan Pathan, with a margin of almost 14,000 votes.

In Sandur, Annaporna Tukaram of the Congress romped home to victory. She defeated BJP’s Bangaru Hanumanthu by a little more than 9,000 votes.

Riding on the phenomenal victories, Karnataka CM lambasted BJP and JDS, calling out their ‘hollowness’ in their campaign. He stressed that the BJP resorted to falsehoods and communalism in order to corner the Congress, but only ended up with an egg on its face.

With these three victories, the Congress’ tally now increases by 3 seats.

Elsewhere, in Maharashtra the BJP (Mahayuti) managed to retain power with a tally of more than 200 seats, while in Jharkhand, INDI Alliance managed to secure 56 seats.

(Tallies mentioned are as available at the time of filing this report)