Who won the Council poll? Cong says it did better with 44,225 votes

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Congress has secured 44,225 of the total 96,000 votes as against 37,283 secured by the BJP in the recently-held Legislative Council elections showing it had the upper hand, said KPCC Working President R. Dhruvanarayan.

Addressing a news conference here on Friday, he said the Janata Dal (secular) has polled just 10,249 votes. The results of the Council polls have given a befitting reply to BJP leaders who had termed the Congress a ‘sinking ship’ as the Congress has secured the same number of seats bagged by the saffron party.

He also claimed former CM, B.S.Yediyurappa’s claim that the BJP had won more than 45,000 votes in the Council polls was ‘false and baseless.’

The former MP said the Congress had received unprecedented support in BJP bastions like Belagavi where the saffron party has two Lok Sabha members and 11 MLAs. The Congress was still able to win by over 1,286 votes against BJP candidate, Mahantesh Kavatagimath while in the Hubballi-Dharwad, Gadag and Haveri seat , home territory for Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and former CM Jagadish Shettar, Congress candidate, Saleem Ahmed won by a margin of 837votes.

In Vijayapura-Bagalkot twin seat constituency, Congress candidate Sunil Patil won by 1026 votes and in Dakshina Kannada, BJP Minister Kota Srinivasa Poojary won the Dakshina Kannada seat relying on his own charisma. Since the Lingayats are in a majority in North Karnataka, the BJP considered the region its base but that has been disproved with the victory of Congress candidates in the region, he added. In south Karnataka, Dhruvanaryan said the JD(S) had six MLAs and the BJP one but still Congress candidates managed to pull off victories. In Mysuru, the JD(S) won since it polled more second preferential votes. The Congress candidates managed to win in all Vokkaliga dominated districts and a pro-Congress wave is sweeping across the state, he claimed.