Defeats A.H. Vishwanath of the BJP by a margin of nearly 40,000 votes

Hunsur: Even as the Congress fared poorly winning just two Assembly seats out of the fifteen which went to the by-polls on Dec.5, Congress candidate from Hunsur H.P. Manjunath recorded a huge win, defeating his nearest rival Adagooru H. Vishwanath of the BJP by a margin of nearly 40,000 votes.

The counting of votes was taken up amidst tight security at D. Devaraj Urs Government First Grade College here at 8 am and the results were formally announced at about 11.45 am.

The Hunsur Assembly segment saw 1,83,728 voters turning up at the polling booths for the by-polls. Also, there were 77 postal ballots, taking the total number of votes polled to 1,83,805.  Congress candidate Manjunath bagged more than half of the votes polled by securing 92,725 votes while his nearest rival Vishwanath of the BJP came a distant second bagging 52,998 votes and JD(S) candidate Devaralli Somasekhar was third with 32,895 votes.

There were ten candidates in the fray, and barring the victorious Congress candidate and the losing BJP and JD(S) candidates, all seven others lost their deposit. There were 994 NOTA (None of the above) votes.

Manjunath, who had represented the Constituency twice earlier, maintained a steady lead right from round one of the counting and his lead only increased with every round of counting. BJP candidate Vishwanath and JD(S) candidate Devaralli Somasekhar trailed far behind Manjunath in all the 20 rounds of counting.

Soon after the poll authorities declared his victory, Manjunath offered floral tributes to the bust of D. Devaraj Urs in the town.