Karnataka by-election results live update: Parties on tenterhooks as prestige at stake

In view of the humiliating defeat in the Karnataka by-polls, former CM Siddaramaiah has reportedly resigned, but Ahmed Patel, political secretary to AICC chief Sonia Gandhi has not accepted it. 

KS Eshwarappa, senior BJP leader says people have lost faith in Congress and JD(S) and voted for a stable government. He said, “BJP workers worked with unity. Even our booth-level workers gave their best. On the other hand, there was no unity among leaders. Siddaramaiah was the only one who worked hard. Mallikarjuna Kharge, DK Shivakumar all did not have unity in their canvassing.”  
 

Today, the people of Karnataka have shown that Congress and JD(S) can’t backstab them. The people have voted for a government that is stable and strong. 

On securing 12 seats in the by-elections, BL Santosh, national organising secretary said, “Mandya & Chikkaballapura were two districts where @BJP4Karnataka had never won assembly polls ... With today’s victory in both there is no district in state BJP hasn’t won elections at some point of time.” 

Buoyed by the success of his party in the  by-elections, CM BS Yediyurappa said he wouldn’t renege on this promise and would offer ministerial berths to the winners in the elections.  

BJP Rajya Sabha Rajeev Chandrasekhar has former CMs HD Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah and the former Speaker Ramesh Kumar as the saffron party more or less romped home to victory.

Goddess of victory has blessed two more BJP candidates as Ramesh Jarkiholi wins by 27890 votes in Gokak while ST Somashekhar wins from Yeshwantpur by over 25k votes 

MLAs in both Congress and JD(S) are disgruntled. If they wish to come to our party, we will welcome them. It is 17 of those MLAs who came to us, we did not call them. We want to give good governance. 

The list of BJP candidates who have declared won so far:

BC Patil from Hirekerur
K Sudhakar from Chikkaballapur
Byrati Basavaraj from KR Puram
K Gopalaiah from Mahalakshmi Layout
Narayanagowda from KR Pete 
Shivaram Hebbar from Yellapura 
Ramesh Jarkiholi from Gokak 
Srimant Patil from Kagwad 
Anand Singh from Vijayanagar

BC Patil says, “We were declared as disqualified. But the people of our constituency have voted for us. People have voted in our favour. We will work towards developing our constituency.” 

BY Vijayendra said, “I am happy that we won. This will enable us to take up more developmental works in the constituency. Some people threw slippers at our candidate. But now, they themselves will come and garland him with flowers.” 

Considered to be a JD(S) bastion, KR Pete has voted in favour of Narayana Gowda who defected to the BJP. 

Hunsur voters have clearly voted against Vishwanath as HP Manjunath, Congress candidate gets 55217. 

Vishwanath: 34396

Manjunath: 55217 

Seems like Siddaramaiah's campaigning has not worked in Chikkaballapura as Sudhakar wins the by-elections 

BJP has had the last laugh in Kagwad as Srimant Pati has won 

Congress leader DKS Shivakumar stays defiant in spite of a possible humiliating loss for the party. He adds that they will not allow the party to fall into an abyss of loss 

A visibly relaxed CM BS Yediyurappa is seen having a chat with his senior BJP leaders at his house as his party is surely running towards getting majority seats  

In the first two hours of the voting, BJP is leading with 11 seats in its kitty. 

Kagwad BJP’s candidate Srimanth Patil leads by a margin of 18554 votes 

Ramesh Jarkiholi leads by a margin of 4394 votes against his own brother Lakhan Jarkiholi who is contesting on a Congress ticket

BJP’s Sudhakar leads in Chikkaballapur by 13,666. The consitituency had also recored a voting percentage of 80% 

Independent candidate Sharath Bache Gowda is currently leading with Ind 8780 votes while BJP's MTB Nagaraj leads with 4960 votes

 

As BJP leads in 9 seats, Mahesh Kumatahalli leads in Athani by 4,027 votes 

From Athani to Kagwad to Yellapura to Hirekeruru to Mahalakshmi Layout to Vijayanagara, BJP is ahead in as many as 10 constituencies 

It’s heartbreak for BJP’s MTB Nagaraj as BJP rebel Bache Gowda is leading in the initial leads 

Be it Chikkaballapura or Gokak or Hunsur or Yellapura, the BJP is doing tremendously well in the first half hour of counting 

BJP has managed to bag the first leads as its candidates have secured more votes in 12 seats 
 

As strange as it may sound, due to power failure in Yeshwantpur constituency, counting has been halted 

It’s a good opening for BJP in Vijayanagara, Chikkaballapura, KR Pete, Hunsuru and Gokak

In relation to postal votes, BJP’s Ramesh Jarkiholi in Gokak and H Vishwanath in Hunsur have gained leads 

Though counting begins at 8 am, counting staff begin counting postal votes  

Sharat Bache Gowda, independent candidate from Hosakote, H Vishwanath, BJP candidate from Hunsur arrive at counting centres. 
 

Stressing on the fact that the Congress is not necessarily interested in forming a government, Congress sources added that their primary goal is to teach disqualified MLAs a lesson 

With just minutes left for counting to begin, M Saravana, BJP’s candidate from Shivajinagar arrives at counting centre 

Agents of all parties arrive at counting centres as strong rooms open 

BJP candidate Byrati Basavaraj arrives at St Joseph’s Indian high school. Around 400 police personnel deployed to thwart any untoward incident 
 

Voting percentage in Shivajinagar: 43%
Clear picture to emerge by 10 am 
More than 40 counting staff in different rooms 
 

Counting will take place at Akash international school in Devanahalli for Hoskote constituency. 1 SP, 1 ASP, 3 DySPs, 1 KSRP, 1 BSF, 2 DAR platoons, totalling 300 security personnel on guard. Counting staff begin to arrive. Only those will valid passes being let in. 

Former CM HD Kumaraswamy again shed tears during his campaigning in KR Pete. Union minister Sadananda Gowda mocked him saying HDK has “tears caused by Vicks”. 

An admirer of Siddaramaiah blurted out “Houdo Huliya” which went viral. 

When reporters informed CM BS Yediyurappa  that Siddaramaiah is fancying his chances, the CM retorted, “He is daydreaming”. 
 

With PM Modi and national BJP president Amit Shah not campaigning in the Karnataka by-poll, the results will test CM Yediyurappa’s calibre as a leader.