Congress's all-out efforts to win the Channapatna assembly seat paid off, with its candidate C.P. Yogeeshwara winning by a margin of 25,413 votes, according to Election Commission, over his nearest rival Nikhil Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular). The former polled 1,12,642 votes.
The Congress was desperate to win Channapatna, as it is the only assembly seat in Ramanagara district that the party failed to win when the Congress came to power in May 2023, winning 136 seats in the 224-member House.
Yogeeshwara had quit the BJP dramatically ahead of the bypolls and joined the Congress in October. He refused to contest as the NDA candidate on a JD (S) ticket, after the BJP central leadership asserted that the seat belonged to its ally as the seat was vacated by Union Minister and JD(S) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy. The five-time MLA has contested elections on Congress, SP and BJP tickets in the past.
BJP and JD(S) leaders had together campaigned in Channapatna for actor-turned-politician Nikhil Kumaraswamy, who is the son of Kumaraswamy and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda's grandson.
Meanwhile, in in Sandur and Shiggaon constituencies, it was a straight fight between the ruling Congress and BJP. Congress has a steady lead in Sandur and has also emerged as the front-runner in Shiggaon, too.
The bypolls, which were held on November 13, were necessitated as the Sandur, Shiggaon and Channapatna seats fell vacant following the election of E. Tukaram of Congress, former CM Basavaraj Bommai of BJP, and Union Minister Kumaraswamy to Lok Sabha in May.
In Shiggaon, BJP's Bharath Bommai, son of Basavaraj Bommai was trailing with a margin of 1,158 votes against Congress's Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan, who was defeated by the former CM in the 2023 assembly polls.
In Sandur, Bellary MP Tukaram's wife E. Annapurna of Congress won by a margin of 9,649 votes. While Annapoorna secured 93,616 votes, BJP ST Morcha president Bangaru Hanumanthu got 83,967 votes, the Election Commission said.