By IANS,
Bangalore : The Congress Wednesday wrested the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka from the crisis-ridden ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The loss could lead to the early exit of Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, who had won the seat in 2009 and vacated it after taking office in August last year.
Congress nominee K. Jayaprakash Hegde, who had lost to Gowda in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, defeated BJP’s V. Sunil Kumar by over 45,000 votes in the bypoll held March 18.
He polled 398,723 votes to Kumar’s 352,999. Janata Dal-Secular’s S.L. Bhoje Gowda was far behind with around 70,000 votes.
There was speculation that Gowda could exit as chief minister as his predecessor B.S. Yeddyurappa had been pressuring BJP national leaders to reinstate him.
The BJP candidate’s defeat is a severe loss of face for Gowda and state unit chief K.S. Eshwarappa as they led the election campaign, which Yeddyurappa boycotted as part of tactics to regain the post of chief minister.
He and his supporters also boycotted the assembly Tuesday, the first day of the 10-day budget session. Yeddyurappa has been claiming that around 70 of the party’s 120 members in the 225-member assembly want him to return as chief minister.
Yeddyurappa and his supporters, which includes several ministers, stayed in a resort on the outskirts of Bangalore Sunday night to show the party central leaders their strength.
However, all of them attended the assembly Wednesday following some tough talking by party mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and promise by BJP national leaders that his demand would be considered after the budget for 2012-13 is approved by the assembly.
Gowda presented the budget Wednesday as the vote counting was on in Udupi-Chikmagalur.
He took over from Yeddyurappa Aug 4 and this was his first budget. This also will be the last budget of BJP’s first term in office as assembly polls are due April-May next year.