Home Articles BJP wins Sira assembly seat in Karnataka for first time
KEY STORY
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BENGALURU: The ruling BJP in Karnataka created history of sorts by bagging the Sira assembly segment in Tumakuru district for the first time with party candidate C M Rajesh Gowda emerging the winner in the recent byelection.
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Gowda defeated his closest Congress rival T B Jayachandra, a six-time MLA and former minister, by a margin of over 12,000 votes, officials said.
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JD(S) that had won the seat in the 2018 assembly elections has been relegated to third place.
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The bypoll, held on November 3, has been necessitated in Sira following the death of JD(S) MLA B Sathyanarayana in August.
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Apparently eyeing sympathy votes, the JD(S) had fielded Ammajamma B, wife of Sathyanarayana.
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BJP’s Rajesh Gowda is a radiologist and the son of former Congress MP C P Mudalagiriyappa and had recently joined the ruling party.
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His win is significant as this is the first ever success for the BJP in Sira, which falls in old Mysuru region, where the party had been weak traditionally.
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With its negligible presence in the constituency where Congress and JD(S) had been the traditional rivals, the BJP had not polled more than 24,000 votes in the past.
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After winning K R Pet and Chikkaballapura assembly seats in December 2019 bypolls, the BJP has been focussing on making further inroads in the old Mysuru region.
CONCLUSION
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Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s son and state BJP Vice President B Y Vijayendra, who played a key role in winning K R Pet in 2019, along with other leaders had camped in Sira to ensure the party’s victory.
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This win will add another feather to his cap, with him being seen as Yediyurappa’s political heir, sources said.
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BJP was a distant third in the 2018 assembly polls by securing only 16,959 votes in Sira.
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Sathyanarayana had then defeated Jayachandra of the Congress. Jayachandra was the candidate this time too and AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala had reportedly expressed his reservations to the state unit leaders about the choice.