BJP leads in two seats, Congress in one in Karnataka

Bengaluru: The BJP led in two seats and the ruling Congress in one seat as officials on Tuesday counted the votes polled in the three Assembly by-Elections held in Karnataka.

The Bharatiya Janata Party`s YA Narayanaswamy was ahead of CK Abdul Rahman Shariff (Congress) by 19,149 votes in the high-profile Hebbal segment in Bengaluru North while the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) candidate Ismail Sharieff Nana was trailing behind both with 3,666 votes.

Abdul is the grandson of former union minister CK Jaffer Sharief, while Narayanaswamy is a two-time lawmaker of the state legislative council.

In the reserved Devadurga constituency in Raichur district, about 510 km from Bengaluru, BJP`s K Shivana Gouda Nayak led by 16,871 votes over Congress rival A Rajashekhara Nayak. JD-S contestant Karemma G Nayak was way behind with 9,156 votes.

In Bidar in the state`s north, about 690 km from here, Congress nominee Rahim Khan was ahead of Prakash Khandre of the BJP by 22,825 votes. The JD-S was in third position with 4,307 votes.

Hebbal registered the lowest voting of 45 percent in the by-polls held on Saturday while it was 61 percent in Bidar and 67 percent in Devadurga.

The final results are expected by evening.

The by-elections were necessitated by the death of lawmakers R Jagadish Kumar of BJP from Hebbal, Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli of BJP from Bidar and Venkatesh Naik of Congress from Devadurga.