Congress has won a clear majority in Karnataka Assembly Elections. According to the Election Commission of India, Congress has won 135 seats out of a total 224 Assembly seats and is leading in 1 constituency. The ruling BJP bagged 65 seats. JD(S) has come third winning 19 seats while others have won 4 seats.
Some of the prominent candidates whose fate has been decided are:
· Outgoing Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai wins Shiggaon seat beating Congress candidate Pathan Yasir Ahmed Khan by nearly 36 thousand votes.
· Former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who joined Congress before the elections, was defeated from Hubbali – Dharwad Central seat by BJP candidate by a margin of over 34,000 votes.
· Former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy wins Channapatna Assembly seat by nearly 16 thousand votes.
· Congress candidate and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wins Varuna seat defeating V. Somanna by 46,163.
· Pradesh Congress Committee Chief DK Shivakumar wins Kanakpura by a whopping margin of 1,22,392.
· Vijendra Yediyurappa, who is the son of former Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa, wins Shikaripura constituency by over 11 thousand votes.
· Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge wins in Chittapur against BJP’s Manikanta Rathod by 13,640 votes
· Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Maduswamy loses to C B Suresh Babu of JD(S) in Chikkanayakanahalli by 10,042 votes
· Health Minister K Sudhakar loses to Pradeep Eshwar of Congress in Chikkaballapura by 10,642 votes
· Transport Minister B Sriramulu loses to B Nagendra of Congress in Ballari by 29,300 votes
· Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri loses to Bhimanna Naik of Congress by 8,712 votes in Sirsi seat.
Counting is being held for all 224 Assembly seats for which election were held on Wednesday. A record turnout of 73.19 per cent was recorded in the polling. A total of 2,615 candidates were in the fray.
In the outgoing Assembly, ruling BJP had 116 MLAs, followed by Congress 69, JD(S) 29, BSP 1 and Independents 2 seats.