Congress candidate establishes early lead in R R Nagar

The Congress was leading in the Rajarajeshwari Nagar assembly constituency here by a margin of over 8,600 votes, where counting began this morning amid tight security, as per initial trends.

Poll officials said Congress' Muniratna has secured 16,581 votes, followed by BJP's Tulsi Muniraju Gowda with 7,901 votes and JD(S) G H Ramachandra 3,606 votes.

About 54 per cent out of the 4.71 lakh voters in the constituency had exercised their franchise on May 28.

While assembly elections across the state were held on May 12, polling in Rajarajeshwari Nagar was conducted on May 28, as the Election Commission had deferred polling there following the voter ID controversy and various other irregularities.

A major row erupted over electoral malpractices and seizure of nearly 10,000 voter ID cards from an apartment in the constituency, ahead of May 12 elections.

Fourteen candidates were in the fray in Rajarajeshwari Nagar polls, including incumbent MLA in the dissolved assembly, Muniratna.

While BJP has fielded Tulsi Muniraju Gowda, JD(S) candidate is G H Ramachandra, who had joined the party ahead of polls, quitting BJP.

Muniratna is one of the accused in the case related to voter ID cards that were found in an apartment.

Police has registered a case of election related malpractices under relevant sections of the IPC besides offences under the People's Representation Act against him and others.

Rajarajeshwari Nagar became the first constituency to go for polls after Congress-JD(S) coalition government came to power in the state.

In this election, both parties fought against each other as they failed to reach consensus regarding supporting one coalition candidate.