In the hotly contested by-polls to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) from the Gandhinagar ward (ward number 94), Congress emerged victorious. The party candidate T Gopalakrishna secured a total of 6,271 votes and won with a margin of 1,546 votes. The ruling BJP's G Ramachandra came second by bagging 4,725 votes.
The by-poll was held in 30 booths across the ward on February 26. The election to the ward was necessitated by the murder of former Congress councillor S. Natraj in broad daylight on October 1.
As many as seven contestants, including those from Janata Dal (S) [P.K. Suresh], JD(U) [S. Ashwath Narayan] and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam [Yuvaraj], failed to recover their deposit. While the JD(S) secured a total of 408 votes, AIADMK bagged 171 and JD(U) got just 37 votes. With only 47.15 per cent of the 24,851 voters exercising their franchise, the election was contested hotly by the Congress and BJP.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Congress maintained a clear lead over the BJP in the all the five rounds of counting. As the results of each round were announced on the loudspeaker by the election officer, the Congress supporters and party workers, who had gathered outside the counting centre here, cheered loudly.