BJP wins one, loses one in Karnataka bypolls

In a mixed outcome for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka, the ruling party on Wednesday wrested one seat from the Congress but lost another to the Janata Dal-Secular in the by-elections to Gulbarga South and Kadur assembly constituencies.

In the byelections held on September 13, the BJP's Y C Vishwanath, a medical practitioner, won by over 13,000 votes in Kadur, held earlier by the Congress.

But the BJP failed to retain Gulbarga South, with the JD-S candidate Aruna Patil romping home by over 3,000 votes over the Congress's Ajay Singh, son of former chief minister Dharam Singh.

The Congress suffered a double jolt as it not only lost Kadur but its candidate Ajay Singh also failed to taste success in elections for the second time despite Gulbarga being considered Dharam Singh's stronghold.

The Congress had played for high stakes in Gulbarga, where Dharam Singh and Union Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge had campaigned extensively, and in Kadur, hoping to cash in on the success of its recent 302-km padyatra against BJP rule.

The two seats fell vacant following the deaths of the BJP's Chandrasekhara Patil Revoor (Gulbarga South) and the Congress's K M Krishnamurthy (Kadur).

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa had himself campaigned for BJP candidate Sushil Namoshi, an MLC, but ended up conceding defeat to the JD-S, which roped in the wife of late Revoor and successfully rode on the sympathy wave.

In Kadur, the Congress's K M Kemparaju, brother of Krishnamurthy, failed to generate any sympathy wave. The JD-S nominee and party spokesperson Y S V Datta also failed in his second bid for the same seat.