Bengaluru, 3 May

Counting of votes for bypolls for Bagalkot and Davangere South will be held on 4 May, amid tight security, election officials said on Sunday.

Poll officials said the counting of votes would begin at 8am, and a clear picture may emerge by midday.

The by-elections were held on 9 April and were necessitated by the deaths of senior Congress MLAs HY Meti (Bagalkot) and Shamanur Shivashankarappa (Davangere South).

The BJP fielded former MLA and 2023 defeated candidate Veerabhadrayya Charantimath from Bagalkot, and a fresh face, Srinivas T Dasakariyappa, from Davangere South.

The Congress gave tickets to family members of the late legislators in both constituencies. Bagalkot candidate Umesh Meti is the son of HY Meti, while Samarth Mallikarjun from Davangere South is the grandson of Shamanur Shivashankarappa.

Samarth’s father, SS Mallikarjun, is also a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Cabinet and in charge of Davangere district, while his mother, Prabha Mallikarjun, is a Member of Parliament from the region.

Although the outcome of these by-elections is unlikely to have an immediate impact on State politics, the contest is seen as a matter of prestige for both the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP.

While the Congress faces the challenge of retaining both seats, the BJP aims to wrest them and deliver a setback to the ruling party, which it claims is “internal power struggle” over leadership. The BJP also seeks to energise its cadre ahead of the 2028 Assembly elections while a loss for the Congress could be seen as a negative verdict on the performance of the Siddaramaiah-led government.

The Davangere seat, which has a significant Muslim population, will also test the Congress’ popularity with minorities, especially given the political controversy that followed when the party chose not to give a ticket to a member of the community.

According to the Election Commission, the voter turnout in Bagalkot was 68.74 per cent, and it was 68.43 per cent in Davangere South.

According to election officials, 14 tables each have been set for vote counting on EVMs at counting centres - University of Horticultural Sciences in Bagalkot and DRR School at Davangere, where nine and 25 candidates were in the fray, respectively.

In the 2023 Assembly elections, HY Meti defeated BJP’s Charantimath by a margin of 5,878 votes in Bagalkot, while Shivashankarappa defeated BJP’s BG Ajay Kumar by 27,888 votes in Davangere South.