Outgoing Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, state Congress President D K Shivakumar, and former Union Minister K H Muniyappa are among the key leaders who have been declared victorious by the Election Commission in the Karnataka Assembly polls for which counting of votes was taken up on Saturday.
The Congress emerged victorious in the polls by defeating the BJP upon crossing the majority mark of 113 seats in the 224-member Assembly. The Congress is leading or winning in 136 seats as per data on the Election Commission website.
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Results of former chief ministers Siddaramaiah of Congress and H D Kumaraswamy of JD(S) are yet to be announced. However, they are leading in their respective segments.
Bommai won from Shiggaon defeating Congress Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan by a margin of 35,978 votes.
Shivakumar defeated B Nagaraju of JD(S) with a win from his traditional Kanakapura seat by a margin of 1,22,392 votes, while former deputy chief minister and former KPCC chief G Parameshwara won from Koratagere by 14,347 votes.
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Veteran Congress leader and seven-time MP Muniyappa, who had for the first time forayed into Assembly elections, won from Devanahalli defeating Nisarga Narayanaswamy of JD(S) by 4,631 votes.
H D Kumaraswamy's brother H D Revanna won from Holenarasipura by a margin of 3,152 votes.
JD(S)' Swaroop Prakash, who got the ticket after a row with former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's daughter-in-law Bhavani Revanna who was determined to contest from the seat but subsequently campaigned for him after he got the nod, won the much-hyped Hassan segment against Preetham J. Gowda by a margin of 7,854 votes.
Veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa's son B Y Vijayendra won Shikaripura seat defeating Independent candidate S P Nagaraja Gowda by 11,008 votes.
Other BJP winners including Minister C N Ashwath Narayan (Malleshwaram), C C Patil (Naragund) and R Ashoka (Padmanabhanagar), who had also contested from Kanakapura where he lost.
Congress winners include its working Presidents Ramalinga Reddy (BTM Layout) and Eshwar Khandre (Bhalki), party's campaign committee chief M B Patil (Babaleshwar), AICC members H K Patil (Gadag) and Dinesh Gundu Rao (Gandhi Nagar).
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Senior Congress MLAs Krishna Byregowda (Byatarayanapura) and B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan ( Chamrajpet) also emerged victorious.
Laxman Savadi, a former Deputy Chief Minister who had quit BJP and joined Congress ahead of polls over being denied ticket by the saffron party, won from Athani by a margin of 76,122 votes, defeating BJP's Mahesh Kumathalli.