BENGALURU: In a big blow for the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah powered BJP, the saffron party suffered a crushing 4-1 defeat at the hands of the ruling Congress-JDS combine in Karnataka byelections the results of which were announced on Tuesday.


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In a big boost to the Rahul Gandhi-led party, the Congress won in BJP's stronghold Bellary.


Congress candidate VS Ugrappa defeated the nearest rival, the BJP's V Shantha, in the Bellary Lok Sabha seat, which has voted BJP since 2004 and is the stronghold of the mining barons, the Reddy brothers.


V Shantha, a former parliamentarian, is the sister of BJP leader B Sriramulu, who vacated the constituency to contest the assembly elections in May.


The BJP could taste success only in Shivamogga parliamentary seat, the pocket borough of the Leader of the Opposition BS Yeddyurappa. His son BY Raghavendra managed to defeat Madhu Bangarappa of the JD(S) with a considerable margin. 


Madhu is the son of former Congress chief minister the late S Bangarappa.


Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha bagged the Ramanagara assembly seat by a spectacular margin of 1,09,137 against her nearest rival BJP's L Chandrashekar, who had pulled out of the contest, but still officially remains the party candidate.


Chandrashekhar, who had joined the BJP ahead of the polls, returned to Congress weeks later, leaving the saffron party red-faced and the field open for a walkover for Anitha Kumaraswamy. 
Ramanagara seat fell vacant after Kumaraswamy preferred to retain Chennapatna, the other constituency from where he had won.


In Jamkhandi, Congress candidate Anand Nyamgouda defeated BJP's Srikant Kulkarni by a margin of 39,480 votes, riding a sympathy wave following his father and sitting MLA Siddu Nyamagouda's death in a road accident.


In Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, JD(S) candidate L Shivarame Gowda defeated BJP candidate Siddaramaiah, a political greenhorn and a former civil servant, by a staggering lead of over 3 lakh votes.


Mandya is a stronghold of the Vokkaliga community to which JD(S) supremo and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda belongs.


With Tuesday's victory, the Congress-JD(S) alliance's tally has gone up to 120 seats in the 224 member assembly where the BJP has 104 MLAs.


Today's results have come as a big shock for the saffron party which has lost 20 out of the 30 Lok Sabha seats where bypolls were held since 2014.


The party had won 282 seats in 2014 riding high on the Narendra Modi wave. The party now has a wafer-thin majority in the Lok Sabha - with 272 MPs (including suspended member Kirti Azad and excluding two nominated Anglo-Indians) in the 539-member House.


The winning margin for the BJP has been consistently declining since its thumping victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. 


In the bypolls held soon after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections - Vadodara in Gujarat and Beed in Maharashtra - the BJP secured over 70 percent of the total votes polled.


But as time elapsed, the vote share of the BJP started to decline. 


Bypolls were held at Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh and Lakhimpur in Uttar Pradesh in 2016 were the BJP secured 45.06 percent and 44.65 percent votes respectively.


In the recently held bypoll in Palghar, the BJP won the seat with a margin of over 29,000 but receiving only 31.35 per cent vote.


Shiv Sena secured 27.95 per cent of total votes polled while Baliram Sukur Jadhav of Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi secured 25.61 per cent votes to finish third. The BJP had got 53.72 per cent vote in 2014.


In the case of Opposition parties, their vote share against the BJP has risen substantially in the eight bypolls that they have won wresting Lok Sabha seats from the ruling party. The Congress has benefitted the most winning four.


The Samajwadi Party won two - Gorakhpur and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh while the Nationalist Congress Party (in Maharashtra) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (in Uttar Pradesh) snatched one seat each from the BJP in the bypolls.


Lok Sabha Byelections Held Since 2014


2018 


1. Bellary – BJP lost to Congress


2. Shivmogga – BJP retains seat 


3. Mandya- JDS retains seat 


4. Kairana (UP) – BJP lost to RLD 


5. Palghar – BJP retains seat 


6. Bhandara-Gondiya- BJP lost to NCP 


7. Nagaland – NDPP retains seat


8. Araria- RJD retains seat


9. Phulpur- BJP lost to SP 


10. Gorakhpur- BJP lost to SP 


11. Alwar- BJP lost to Congress 


12. Ajmer- BJP lost to Congress 


13. Uluberia- TMC retains seat


2017


1. Gurdaspur- BJP lost to Congress 


2. Amritsar- Congress retains seat


3. Srinagar- PDP lost to NC 


4. Malappuram- IUML retains seat


2016


1. Tura- NPP retains seat


2. Shahdol- BJP retains seat


3. Tamaluk- TMC retains seat


4. Coochbihar- TMC retains seat


5. Lakhimpur- BJP retains seat 


2015


1. Ratlam- BJP lost to Congress 


2. Bongaon- TMC retains seat


3. Warangal- TRS retains seat


2014


1. Vadodara- BJP retains seat


2. Beed- BJP retains seat


3. Mainpuri- SP retains seat


4. Medak- TRS retains seat


5. Kandhamal- BJD retains seat