JDS-Cong pip BJP in Karnataka

​Bengaluru: In a stunning blow to the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the JD(S)-Congress coalition on Tuesday worsted the saffron party 4-1 in the Karnataka byelections, winning two Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies, while conceding only the Shimoga parliamentary seat.

In what was considered the semi-final ahead of the next year's general election, it was a resounding victory for the ruling coalition in just six months after the May 12 Assembly elections, which had returned a hung verdict, forcing the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) to come together to form a coalition government on May 23.

Hailing the victory, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy called for opposition parties to unite under the leadership of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the next year's Lok Sabha elections, as people were looking for an alternative. While the JD-S and the Congress won the Mandya and Bellary (ST) Lok Sabha seats, they also bagged the Ramanagaram and Jamkhandi Assembly seats.

The Congress scored a major victory wresting the BJP's citadel in Bellary (reserved) Lok Sabha seat, where its candidate VS Ugrappa defeated BJP's J Shantha by a margin of 2,43,161 votes. Ugrappa polled 6,28,365 votes against 3,85,204 secured by Shantha, sister of BJP leader B Sriramulu, a close associate of the controversial mining Reddy brothers.

The byelection was held in the Lok Sabha constituency, which was a BJP bastion since 2004, after Sriramulu resigned following his election to the state Assembly from Molakalmuru (reserved) seat in the adjacent Chitradurga district in May.

Bellary in the southern state's northwest region shot into national fame when then Congress president Sonia Gandhi won in the 1999 mid-term Lok Sabha elections, defeating BJP's Sushma Swaraj. Sonia, however, resigned from Bellary within weeks to retain the Rai Bareily Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh as she had contested from both the constituencies.