As the counting for three Assembly segments for which bye-elections were held was progressing in Karnataka on Saturday, the Congress was leading in all three seats and also taking major leads in two segments.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which was leading in all three Assembly segments early on has suffered a setback.
Importantly, the Congress has registered a lead by a huge margin in the high-profile Channapatna constituency.
Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel, H.D. Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy is the NDA candidate from this segment.
According to official statistics released by the Election Commission of India (ECI), in the Channapatna constituency, Nikhil Kumaraswamy was trailing by 18,029 votes at the end of the ninth round.
Nikhil polled 37,286 votes while the Congress candidate C.P. Yogeshwara has got 55,315 votes.
There are 20 rounds of counting for this segment which witnessed a remarkable 88.80 per cent voting in the bye-election, even as 192 voters opted for NOTA here.
Congress candidate Annapurna Tukaram is leading by 5,654 votes at the end of the 12th round as she polled 62,177 votes.
Her rival BJP candidate Bangaru Hanumanthu polled 56,523 votes. There are 19 rounds of counting for this Assembly segment and 736 people have preferred the NOTA option.
In Shiggaon Assembly constituency, the BJP candidate Bharath Bommai was trailing by 1,158 votes in round eight. He polled 43,399 votes and Congress candidate Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan who suffered an initial setback managed a comeback and got 44,557 votes.
Ten rounds of counting are remaining here and 415 NOTA votes have been counted so far.
Political parties in Karnataka are eagerly awaiting the results of the bypolls to the three Assembly constituencies and the results are expected by noon.
The three constituencies went to the polls following resignations by legislators who successfully contested the Lok Sabha elections.
Of the three seats, the Channapatna seat is considered the most high-profile, as it has witnessed a showdown between the families of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Congress President D.K. Shivakumar.
The bye-elections were held for the Channapatna Assembly seat represented by H.D. Kumaraswamy, the Shiggaon seat held by former CM and BJP MP Basavaraj Bommai. The Sandur seat, where the BJP has never won, was represented by the Congress MP E. Tukaram.
(With inputs from IANS)
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