The Hindu : Karnataka News : Janata Dal (Secular) emerges on top in Gulbarga South

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Janata Dal (Secular) emerges on top in Gulbarga South

Special Correspondent

Aruna Chandrashekhar Patil Revoor wins by a margin of 3,532 votes

Congratulations:Returning Officer of the Gulbarga South Assembly Constituency Amareshwar Naik handing over the certificate to victorious JD(S) candidate Aruna Chandrashekhar Patil Revoor in Gulbarga on Thursday. The former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy is seen.

GULBARGA: The Janata Dal (Secular) on Thursday made a spectacular comeback by winning the byelection from the Gulbarga South Assembly Constituency. The Bharatiya Janata Party came second while the Congress was pushed to the third spot a closely contested byelection.

Aruna Chandrashekhar Patil Revoor of the Janata Dal (Secular) defeated BJP's Shashil G Namoshi by a margin of 3,532 votes, relegating Congress candidate Ajay Singh, son of thje former Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh, to the third place.

While Ms. Revoor polled 35,567 votes, Mr. Namoshi secured 35,890 and Ajay Singh 35,567 of the total 1,15,378 votes polled in the byelection. After 25 years, the Janata Dal (Secular) is making its presence felt in the constituency. In 1985, the former Minister S.K. Kanta won the undivided Gulbarga city seat as Janata Party candidate and since then the party had been on a receiving end.

Riding on a sympathy wave, the Janata Dal (Secular), which had finished third in the 2008 elections polling just 14.8 per cent votes, polled 34.17 per cent votes to emerge victorious. The BJP, which had polled 46 per cent popular vote in the 2008 elections, slipped to a mere 31.1 per cent votes. The Congress's voting percentage fell from 31.52 per cent in the 2008 elections to 30.82 per cent in the byelection.

While the byelection turned out to be a memorable comeback for the Janata Dal (Secular), the results would haunt the BJP leadership for long. Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had taken the byelection as a prestigious issue and had undertaken intensive campaign for seven days. Apart from this at least 10 Ministers camped in the constituency monitoring the campaign closely.

Mr. Yeddyurappa had pooled all his resources to turn the tide in favour of the BJP and the party has now lost one of most important seats in Gulbarga City reducing its strength in the district to four MLAs — Chincholi, Chitapur, Jewargi and Gulbarga Rural Assembly constituencies. The Congress has two MLAs — Sedam and Gulbarga North Assembly — and the Janata Dal (Secular) has increased its presence to two — Aland and Gulbarga South.

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