In a fierce bypoll battle for Deodurg assembly constituency, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finally succeeded in snatching the Congress stronghold by emerging victorious with a comfortable margin of 16,871 votes.
BJP candidate K. Shivanagowda Naik maintained the lead right from the beginning and finally had 72,647 votes in his account at final round to defeat his Congress rival A. Rajashekhar Naik – youngest son of veteran Congress leader and the then MLA of Devadurga A. Venkatesh Naik whose death in a rail accident in August last year necessitated the bypoll – who polled 55,776 votes.
As vote counting commenced at Infant Jesus High School here on Tuesday at 8 p.m. inside a tight security ring formed by armed forces, confident BJP supporters and cadres outside the vote-counting centre were in a joyful mood. With the announcement of votes polled by each contestant made using loudspeakers after each round of counting completed, the supporters of Shivanagowda Naik celebrated outside the counting centre with cheers, slogans and colours.
Shivanagowda Naik, who emerged before the media after all 18 rounds of vote counting were completed, thanked voters for his victory. He attacked the Congress for attempting to “lure voters”.
“Twelve Ministers, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, camped and campaigned for Congress. They spent over Rs. 80 crore. They attempted to lure voters by giving Rs. 3,000 against each vote. Yet, Devadurga people rejected the Congress candidate. People voted for me considering the development works that I had undertaken during my tenure as MLA and Minister,” he said. The victory in the bypoll would definitely boost morale of party cadres and influence the imminent zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat polls in favour of the BJP, he added.
As the results got clearer, Mr. Rajashekhar Naik came out of vote-counting centre after the 16th of total 18 rounds was completed.
“I accept the people’s verdict. We have seen both defeats and victories in electoral battles. The anti-incumbency wave and stringent actions that my father had taken to curb illegal activities in the constituency have contributed to my defeat,” Mr. Naik told mediapersons.
Janata Dal (Secular) candidate Karemma G. Naik, who could poll only 9,156 votes and lost even her deposit, came out of the vote-counting centre when two more rounds of counting were left. She charged both Congress and BJP with “raining money on voters” and other electoral malpractices.
“It is an unexpected result. We expected that the people would chose a woman candidate and reject both the corrupt candidates fielded by the Congress and the BJP. The election was not free and fair. Both the Congress and the BJP lured voters by raining money on them. There was also a fear unleashed by these parties. Yet, I will accept the poll results and work hard to build my party,” she told presspersons.
Independent candidate Shivaraj Dore polled 1837 votes. 1708 voters rejected all the four candidates in fray by opting None Of The Above (NOTA).
Of the total 2,10,366 voters, 1,39,416 voters had exercised their franchise, including 12 voters through postal means, in the bypoll held on February 13. Two votes were rejected (postal votes). There were no invalid votes polled through electronic voting machines.
R. Selvamani, Assistant Commissioner of Lingasugur who was the Returning Officer for Deodurg bypoll, declared the results in the presence of Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer S. Sasikanth Senthil.
