In a fiercely contested battle, the Congress candidate K. Venkatesh defeated K. Mahadev of Janata Dal (Secular) by a margin of over 2000 votes and was declared elected from the Periyapatna assembly constituency the results of which were declared on Friday.
The elections for this constituency in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's home district were postponed from May 5 to May 28 following the death of BJP candidate Sannamoge Gowda. With this, the Congress tally in the Assembly has gone up to 122 seats.
Mr. Venkatesh, who won by a margin of 2088 votes, polled 62,045 votes while Mr. Mahadev mustered 59,957 votes. There were 8 candidates in the fray of whom six forfeited their deposits. BJP candidate R.T.Satish came in fourth having garnered only 3,731 votes.
The contest saw the JD(S) candidate racing ahead in the first four rounds after which Mr. Venkatesh snatched a slender lead and maintained it till the final round of counting was over.
The Congress victory is a reaffirmation that its citadel in Mysore district is intact and has repeated its 2008 performance by winning 8 out of 11 Assembly constituencies. The JD(S) victory in Mysore has come at the cost of the BJP.
