BJP wrests Jayanagar seat by 16 votes, Cong to complain to EC

Bengaluru, May 14

In a dramatic development, the BJP has wrested Jayanagar Assembly seat in Bengaluru from the Congress party by a margin of only 16 votes, following which the later has decided to complain to the Election Commission (EC).

BJP candidate C.K. Ramamurthy won the seat by defeating sitting MLA Sowmya Reddy of Congress party by the margin of only 16 votes.

The result was announced late Saturday night after recounting three times. Initially, Sowmya Reddy was declared as winner by 160 votes.

Sowmya Reddy has decided to file a complaint challenging the results to the Election Commission. "I won initially. Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and BJP MLA R. Ashoka had entered the counting centre illegally and fabricated the results," she stated.

BJP candidate Rammurthy polled 57,797 votes while Sowmya Reddy secured 57,781 votes. The situation turned serious when Karnataka Congress President D.K. Shivakumar came to the spot. His brother, MP from Bengaluru Rural seat D.K. Suresh got into an argument with the police.

Congress and BJP workers came into confrontation mode and the police had a tough time controlling the situation.

With this, the Congress has won 135 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly. The BJP has secured 66 seats and the JD(S) 19, according to the Election Commission.