The BJP won the Sindgi bypoll by defeating its nearest rival Congress by over 30,000 votes on Tuesday. When counting ended, Ramesh Bhusnur, former MLA and BJP nominee, had secured 93,380 votes against 62,292 of the Congress nominee Ashok Managuli. The winning margin was 31,088 votes. This is the third victory for Ramesh Bhusnur, the only legislator to be chosen three times from Sindgi.
The Janata Dal(S), which had held the Sindgi seat since 2017, lost its deposit. The party candidate, Naziya Angadi, remained a distant third, garnering around 4,321 votes. With this, the number of Janata Dal(S) MLAs elected from North Karnataka has reduced to five.
The bypoll became necessary after Janata Dal(S) MLA M.C. Managuli died in January this year. His son, Ashok Managuli, switched over to the Congress, along with his brother, Shantaveer Managuli.
Though there were six candidates, the fight was between the BJP and the Congress. Between them, they secured 95% of votes. The BJP obtained about 57% of the total votes polled [1,62,852]. The Congress received 38% of the votes.
The Janata Dal(S) got 2.6% of the votes, while NOTA stood at 1,029 votes (0.6%) splitting the rest 1.8 per cent among the other three candidates. As many as 69.5% of the 2.34 lakh voters expressed their opinion on polling day.
The BJP workers celebrated on the road in front of the counting centre. There were celebrations in Sindgi too. Mr. Bhusnur told journalists that the Janata Dal(S) had become irrelevant after this elections. “I knew I would win, but I am pleasantly surprised by this huge margin,” he said.
He said that he received Muslim votes too which proved that the BJP is not an anti-Muslim party, as being portrayed by the Congress.
