BJP loses in Karnataka, Gujarat; pro-Telangana TRS scores in Andhra

Mangaloretoday/ NDTV

New Delhi, March 21:  Crucial by-elections were held today in different parts of the country. The big winner was the pro-Telangana TRS, which swept the Andhra Pradesh elections. The BJP has to deal with considerable damage in Gujarat and Karnataka - it has lost two important seats there.

 

In Andhra Pradesh, six of the seven constituencies that voted are in the Telangana region, which has been campaigning for a separate state. That movement has been aggressively fronted by the TRS, which is headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao or KCR as he’s commonly known. The TRS won four seats and helped an independent candidate get the fifth. It lost Mahabubnagar to the BJP. That’s awkward because Mahabubnagar is the parliamentary constituency of KCR. Violence erupted here with TRS workers attacking the home of the BJP’s candidate after he was declared elected.

Jagan Mohan Reddy, who split from the Congress to form his own party, won the  Kovur seat in coastal Andhra Pradesh. The Congress has lost on all seven seats. It has been punished by voters who hold the government at the centre responsible for refusing to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and give Telangana its own state.

In Gujarat, the BJP lost the Mansa assembly seat in the northern part of the state. The Congress has won a seat that was held for four consecutive terms by the BJP. This was a significant election ahead of the state’s polls, expected in December when BJP chief minister Narendra Modi will seek a new term.

In Karnataka, the BJP was defeated by the Congress in Udupi-Chikmagalur which was voting for a Lok Sabha seat, Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda’s former constituency. The BJP’s tallest leader BS Yeddyurappa was not allowed to campaign here by his party because it was worried the corruption charges against him would turn voters against the party.

In the other by-elections in which counting of votes were done today, the ruling AIADMK retained the Sankarankoil Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu as expected and the BJD won the Athgarh seat in Odisha.


State     Constituency    Winnner     Party
Karnataka     Udupi Chikmagalur*     Jai Prakash  Hegde     Congress
Andhra Pradesh     Mahabubnagar     Y. Srinivas   Reddy     BJP
Andhra Pradesh     Ghanpur (Station)     T.Rajaya     TRS
Andhra Pradesh     Kollapur     J. Krishna Rao     TRS
Andhra Pradesh     Adilabad     J. Ramna     TRS
Andhra Pradesh     Kamareddy     G. Goverdhan     TRS
Andhra Pradesh     Nagarkurnool     N Janardhan Reddy     Independent
Andhra Pradesh     Kovur     N Prasanna Kumar Reddy     YSR Congress
Gujarat     Mansa     Thakur Babu Singh Mohan Singh.     Congress
Kerala     Piravom     Anup Jacob     UDF
Odisha     Athgarh     Ralendra Pratap Sai     BJD
Tamil Nadu     Sankarankoil     V. Muthuselvi    

AIADMK

* Udupi Chikmaglur is a Lok Sabha constituency