JD(S) suffered a setback in its stronghold of Mandya when Congress candidate Dinesh Gooli Gowda triumphed in the elections to the Legislative Council from the local bodies’ constituencies of Mandya district.
Mr. Dinesh, who was till recently the Special Officer of Minister for Cooperation S.T. Somashekar, defeated sitting JD(S) member N. Appaji Gowda by a margin of 97 votes.
During the counting of votes taken up on Tuesday, Mr. Dinesh had secured 2,009 while Mr. Appaji Gowda had polled 1,912. The BJP’s Bookahalli B.C. Manju could secure only 50 votes while independent Manjunath B.G. had to be content with just two votes.
According to an official statement, there were a total of 4,019 ballot papers, including one postal ballot paper. However, 46 ballot papers were rejected and only 3,973 were found valid.
After the counting concluded, Mr Dinesh was declared elected and Deputy Commissioner of Mandya district Ashwathi handed him the certificate. A crowd of Congress supporters, who had gathered outside the counting centre, burst into celebrations after the announcement of the results.
It may be mentioned here that the BJP candidate, hours before the polling on December 10, had shed tears in front of the media hurt over being cheated by the people “whom he trusted”.
Elections to the Legislative Council from local bodies constituency of Mandya had also drawn attention over the entry of Mr. Dinesh into the fray. Though he has been with the Congress for a long time, he was working as Special Officer to Mr. Somashekar till a few days before the date of filing nominations for the elections began.
Mr. Somashekar claimed that he had no information that Mr. Dinesh had been seeking a Congress ticket, but added that he relieved the latter from the post the moment he learnt about the officer’s plans to contest the elections. He also said that he had appointed Mr. Dineshafter he became a Minister on the recommendation of a senior party leader.
