Karnataka bypoll:BJP's Shantha stares at massive defeat

The Congress is faring well in Bellary Lok Sabha constituency with its candidate V S Ugrappa crossing the one lakh mark in votes following the completion of the third round of counting at 9.30 am.

J Santha of the BJP, the sister of powerful Nayaka leader B Sriramulu, has secured 65,559 votes.

The constituency, once a Congress bastion, has been the scene of the famous electoral battle in which AICC president Sonia Gandhi made her electoral debut defeating senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj in 1999.

Sonia won, but the BJP wrested the seat in the 2004 polls and has retained it since.

The present bypoll was necessitated after Sriramulu vacated the seat following his victory in the 2018 Assembly polls from Molkalmuru constituency in Chitradurga district.

Sriramulu had won the seat defeating N Y Hanumanthappa of the Congress by a margin of 85,000 votes.

Ever since the constituency grabbed national attention, winning the seat has become a matter of prestige both for the Congress and the BJP. As part of its coalition arrangement with the Congress, the JD(S) did not contest.

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