BJP wins two seats, Congress one in Karnataka bypolls

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday won two seats and the ruling Congress one seat in the by-elections held to the state assembly in Karnataka.

The BJP's Y.A. Narayanaswamy won from the high-profile Hebbal assembly segment of the Bengaluru North parliamentary constituency by 19,149 votes, defeating C.K. Abdul Rahman Sharief of the Congress and Ismail Sharieff Nana of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).

Narayanaswamy, a two-time lawmaker from the state legislative council, bagged 60,367 votes, while Abdul, the grandson of former union minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief, secured 41,218 votes and Nana 3,666 votes.

Similarly, in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) reserved Devadurga constituency in Raichur district, about 510 km from Bengaluru, the BJP's K. Shivana Gouda Nayak won by 16,871 votes, defeating A. Rajashekhara Nayak of the Congress and Karemma G. Nayak of the JD-S.

In a family battle, the contestants being relatives, Shivana polled 72,647 votes, while Rajashekhara got 55,776 and Karemma 9,156 votes.

In Bidar in the state's north, about 690 km from here, Congress nominee Rahim Khan won by 22,721 votes, defeating Prakash Khandre of the BJP and Md Ayaz Khan of the JD-S.

Rahim polled 70,138 votes, Prakash 47,417 and Ayaz 4,421.

Hebbal registered the lowest voting of 45 percent in the bypolls on Saturday, while it was 61 percent in Bidar and 67 percent (the highest) in Devadurga.

The BJP retained Hebbal and wrested Devadurga from the Congress, while the ruling party wrested Bidar from the BJP.

The by-elections were necessitated by the death of lawmakers -- R. Jagadish Kumar of the BJP from Hebbal, Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli of the BJP from Bidar, and Venkatesh Naik of the Congress from Devadurga.