In the keenly contested bypolls to the Legislative Assembly from Kundagol and Chincholi segments, the BJP and the Congress have secured a seat each. With this, the BJP has gained one more seat in the Assembly as both Kundagol and Chincholi seats were held by the Congress earlier.
The Congress’ loss of one seat in the Assembly is likely to affect the coalition government’s calculations in the coming days and give a shot in the arm for the BJP, which has been trying topple the government.
With this, the Congress tally in the Assembly is down from 80 to 79.
BJP candidate Avinash Jadhav celebrating after his victory in Chicholi byelection, in Kalaburagi on Thursday.
While sympathy wave has helped the Congress retain the Kundagol Assembly segment, Umesh Jadhav, who quit the Congress to join the BJP, has managed to get his son Avinash Jadhav elected from Chincholi, the constituency he represented earlier.
In Kundagol, Kusumavati Shivalli, wife of the former Minister late C.S. Shivalli, defeated her nearest rival S.I. Chikkanagoudar of the BJP by a slender margin of 1,601 votes.
In Chincholi, Mr. Avinash Jadhav defeated Subhas V. Rathod of the Congress by a margin of 8,030 votes.
