Bengaluru, 20 Feb

Congress candidate P Puttanna on Tuesday won the by-election to Karnataka Legislative Council from Bangalore Teachers' Constituency. He defeated his nearest opponent AP Ranganath, a joint candidate of BJP-JD(S) alliance by a margin of 1,507 votes.

This defeat is seen as a setback for BJP-JD(S) combine, as it was the first election they fought together after the regional party joined BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in September 2023. Both parties will be fighting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls together for which seat-sharing talks are on.

Of the 16,541 votes cast during the polls held on 16 February, Puttanna had secured a total of 8,260 votes, followed by 6,753 votes by Ranganath. 1,239 votes were rejected. The by-poll was necessitated as Puttanna, who was representing Bangalore Teachers’ constituency as a BJP candidate, resigned from the post to switch to Congress to contest the 2023 Assembly polls from Rajajinagar constituency.

Commenting on the poll results, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the bypoll result makes it clear that the people have not accepted BJP-JD(S) alliance. The secular mask of JD(S) has come off after it decided to ally with BJP and the people have given a "tight slap to JD(S)' communal avatar", he said in a statement.

Congratulating Puttanna, Siddaramaiah said, "This is the victory for our government's nine months of pro-people rule and it showcases the trust reposed by the electorate in us."