Congress candidate from RR Nagar constituency, Munirathna has emerged victorious for the second consecutive time in the Assembly election, the counting for which was held on Thursday. He is one of the accused in the alleged EPIC card irregularities case in Jalahalli, Bengaluru.
With this win, the Congress strength in the Assembly now stands at 79.
Mr Munirathna won by a margin of 25,492 votes, securing 1,08,064 votes in all. The share of votes of his opponent from BJP Tulasi Muniraju Gowda, stood at 82,572, while JD(S) candidate GH Ramachandra has secured 60,360 votes.
While the rest of the State voted earlier this month, polls in the constituency were deferred to May 28, after at least 9,564 EPIC or voter ID cards were seized from a house in Jalahalli, raising suspicions of irregularities. Mr Munirathna was named as an accused as some of the items seized from the house had his photo stuck on them.
Immaterial of the controversy, Mr. Muniratna has garnered majority share of votes. In all, there were 14 contestants from the constituency, including independents. There were 4.71 lakh registered voters in the constituency which saw 53 per cent voter turnout.
Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who congratulated Mr. Munirathna on his victory, said the R.R. Nagar Assembly results had proved once again that Karnataka would always stand by communal harmony. This also strengthened the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition in the State, he added.
