Karnataka Result 2023: BJP wins Bengaluru's 'prestigious' Jayanagar seat by 16 votes

Karnataka Election Result 2023: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which suffered a humiliating defeat in Karnataka, bagged a 'prestigious' seat in Bengaluru after a close fight with the Congress. BJP's CK Ramamurthy defeated Congress leader and sitting MLA Sowmya Reddy by a narrow margin of just 16 votes in the Jayanagar constituency. The Congress workers held a protest as they alleged misuse of government machinery to favour Ramamurthy.

The Election Commission on Saturday evening ordered the recounting of postal ballots in the Jayanagar constituency. Reddy was leading by 294 votes as she secured 57,591 votes and Ramamurthy 57,297 after counting. An EC official said the recounting of postal ballots was ordered following an appeal by Ramamurthy.

Congress state president DK Shivakumar and party working president Ramalinga Reddy among other office bearers staged a demonstration in protest against the electoral body's order. 

After final counting, Sowmya Reddy, the daughter of senior Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy, secured 57,781 while Ramamurthy got 57,797 votes. Ramamurthy won the seat by just 16 votes.

In 2018, Sowmya Reddy won this seat by securing 49.18 per cent votes while the BJP's B N Prahlad got 46.57 per cent votes.

Commenting on the Jayanagar result, BJP's IT Cell head Amit Malviya said: "BJP has won the prestigious Jayanagar seat in Bengaluru despite D K Shivkumar and Ramalinga Reddy camping and intimidating the EC officials. Soumya Reddy defeated. It was always a BJP seat, nurtured by the late B N Vijaykumar."

The Congress on Saturday recorded a historic win by winning 135 seats with nearly 43 per cent votes. The BJP, which secured 104 seats in the previous elections, settled with just 66 seats with 36 per cent votes. While BJP lost the state, it won a majority of seats in the Bengaluru Urban region. Out of the seven constituencies in Bengaluru Urban, the saffron party won five, whereas Congress got just two.

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