Bengaluru: BJP wrests Jayanagar seat by 16 votes

Bengaluru : On Saturday midnight, the election officials raised the curtain on the confusion in the counting of votes in the Jayanagar assembly constituency and announced that BJP’s CK Ramamurthy had won. Soumya Reddy of Congress was upset by this and burst into tears.

A tense atmosphere was created near the vote counting center of SSMRV College, Jayanagar in the wake of the vote counting confusion. BJP and Congress workers and leaders gathered near the vote counting center of SSMRV College and protested by shouting slogans at each other.

The counting of votes in Jayanagar constituency was going on in margin from the first round. After 16 rounds of counting, Soumya Reddy of Congress was leading by 294 votes, it was announced on the election results website. BJP candidate CK Ramamurthy demanded a recount of postal votes. A total of three recounts were made.

Soumya Reddy was ahead in the first and second recount. Former BBMP corporator, BJP’s CK Ramamurthy led by 16 votes as 200 postal votes initially rejected were validated in the final recount. The election officials did not announce the results as the Congress leaders strongly objected to this.

BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath, who is also the District Election Officer, visited the counting station, checked the EVM and postal votes and announced that BJP candidate CK Ramamurthy had won by 16 votes.

Sowmya Reddy has decided to file a complaint challenging the results to the Election Commission. “I won initially. Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and BJP MLA R. Ashoka had entered the counting centre illegally and fabricated the results,” she stated.

BJP candidate Rammurthy polled 57,797 votes while Sowmya Reddy secured 57,781 votes. The situation turned serious when Karnataka Congress President D.K. Shivakumar came to the spot. His brother, MP from Bengaluru Rural seat D.K. Suresh got into an argument with the police.

Congress and BJP workers came into confrontation mode and the police had a tough time controlling the situation.