SP opens its account in Karnataka assembly

The Samajwadi Party (SP) Wednesday opened its electoral account in the Karnataka assembly with its candidate C.P. Yogeshwara winning from the Channapatna constituency.

Yogeshwara, who was the state forest minister in the outgoing BJP government, defeated Janata Dal-Secular's (JD-S) Anitha Kumaraswamy, wife of the party's state unit president and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Yogeshwara won the Channapatna seat, about 60 km from here, with a margin of 6,404 votes. He polled 80,039 votes.

The former BJP minister contested for the SP after the BJP and the Congress denied him ticket as he was known as a party hopper and had been a member of both parties earlier.

Congress candidate Sadath Alli Khan polled 8,134 votes while the BJP's nominee Ravikumar Gowda polled a mere 1,609 votes.

Though considered a north India based party, the SP entered Karnataka in 2005 when former chief minister and another party hopper S. Bangarappa resigned from the BJP and won from the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency on its ticket in a by-election.

It contested in the 2008 and 2009 assembly and parliamentary elections but none of its candidates won.