The in-fighting within the Bharatiya Janata Party has taken its toll and the party has lost the prestigious constituency of Udupi-Chickmagalur to the Congress.

The by-election to this Parliamentary constituency, which was earlier held by Chief Minister D Sadananda Gowda, was won by the Congress candidate by over 40,000 votes.

The seat had fallen vacant as Gowda had resigned as a member of Parliament after he was appointed the chief minister.

Congress candidate K Jayaprakash Hegde won the seat by defeating BJP leader Sunil Kumar in the by-poll held on March 18.

When the Lok Sabha election was held in 2009, Hegde was defeated by a large margin by Gowda.

But this year, the canvassing by the saffron party remained a lack-lustre affair.

BJP chief Nitin Gadkari had travelled to Karnataka to discuss the election strategy, but he had to go back to deal with problems of in-fighting within the party.