By IANS,
Bangalore : The Congress took an early lead over ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka as counting of votes cast in the March 18 bypoll in the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency began Wednesday.
After an hour of counting that began at 8 a.m., K. Jayaprakash Hegde of Congress, a former minister, had bagged over 25,000 votes to BJP’s youth leader V. Sunil Kumar who got around 22,000 votes, state election authorities said in Bangalore.
Janata Dal-Secular nominee S.L. Bhoje Gowda was third with over 4,000 votes.
Around 68 percent of the 1.24 million eligible voters had cast their ballots in the bypoll caused by BJP’s D.V. Sadananda Gowda vacating the seat after becoming chief minister in August last year.
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