Ramanagara Assembly By-Election Results 2018: Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha wins crucial seat

Ramanagara, Nov 6: Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha Kumaraswamy, the ruling combine's candidate for the Karnataka by-election wins in crucial Ramanagara assembly seat with a margin of 1,09,137 votes.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had suffered a big jolt in the Ramanagara seat after its pick L Chandrashekhar withdrew from the contest, accusing state BJP leaders of "non-cooperation and disinterest".

Ramanagara is one of the old Mysuru districts where the rivalry between the Congress and JD(S) is legendary. This was the first election in four decades without a Congress-JDS fight.

In Ramanagaram, the seat from where Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha Kumaraswamy is contesting, 73.71 per cent voting was registered.

The bypoll was necessitated after Kumaraswamy, who contested on two seats Channapatna and Ramanagaram in the assembly elections earlier this year, decided to quit from Ramanagaram and continued as Chennapatna legislator.

The BJP workers who were hoping for a shock victory for their candidate in the Vokkaliga bastion, were left embarrassed after the party candidate L Chandrashekar stepped down from the contest at the eleventh hour and extended his support to Anita Kumaraswamy, the candidate of the Congress-JD(S) coalition. However, BJP leadership had been sceptical about its prospects in the Assembly segment.

The outcome of the elections is expected to have a bearing on the state's political scene with both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition calling it a semi-final for the 2019 general elections.

The BJP has fielded candidates in all five seats and the Congress-JD(S) alliance worked out a seat-sharing arrangement the Congress is contesting two and the JD(S) three seats.