Congress' Sowmya Reddy wins Bangalore's Jayanagar assembly seat

The counting of votes for the 222 of the 224 assembly seats in the Karnataka state assembly took place on May 15

The Congress on Wednesday snatched the Jayanagar Assembly seat in Bengaluru from the BJP, with its candidate Sowmya Reddy winning by a narrow margin of 2,889 votes.

At the end of the vote count, Sowmya Reddy polled 54,457 votes while the Bharatiya Janata Party's B.N. Prahlad got 51,568 votes, an Election Commission official told IANS.

Polling was held on Monday after the May 12 Assembly election in the seat was countermanded following the death of BJP contestant B.N. Vijaya Kumar on May 4.

The BJP nominated Kumar's younger brother Prahlad as its candidate while Sowmya is the daughter of Congress leader and former Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy.

Amidst bursting of firecrackers and celebrations at Ramalinga Reddy's residence, the winning candidate Sowmya said the victory belonged to all Congress party workers.

"This is a collective victory of all the Congress party workers and the guidance of my father (Ramalinga Reddy)," Sowmya told reporters.

With wins in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru and now in Jayanagar, the Congress tally in the 225-member Assembly has gone up to 79.