R. Ravindrakumar of Congress, who had filed a case challenging the victory of his rival Guru Vinayaka of BJP on the question of fake caste certificate and won in the Court of Law, has now lost in the People’s Court to B.V. Ravindra of BJP.

Mysore/Mysuru:  The BJP has retained MCC Ward 18 (Yadavagiri) in the by-poll held to the Ward on Feb.9. The Ward is reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) Category. The saffron party won by a margin    of 103 votes. 

BJP candidate B.V. Ravindra was declared the winner while Congress candidate R. Ravindrakumar came a close second. JD(S) candidate Swamy fared poorly coming a distant third. The counting of votes was taken up at Government Maharaja Sanskrit School on Sayyaji Rao Road at 8 am today and the result was declared after an hour. The Ward had recorded a poor turnout of just over 44 percent.

BJP’s B.V. Ravindra defeated R. Ravindra Kumar of the Congress by a slender margin of 103 votes. Ravindra secured 2,555 votes, while Ravindra Kumar got 2,452 votes and Swamy of the JD(S) just 182 votes. There were 76 NOTA (None Of The Above) votes as well. A total of 5,265 out of the eligible 11,877 voters in the Ward had exercised their franchise. 

Although Congress candidate Ravindra Kumar managed to gain lead in the initial rounds of counting, BJP candidate Ravindra overtook him in the later rounds and succeeded in emerging as the victor by a margin of 103 votes. The Ward saw a triangular contest with only candidates from BJP, Congress and JD(S) contesting the by-poll, which was necessitated after the Karnataka High Court annulled the election of BJP Corporator Guru Vinayaka over fake caste certificate issue. With today’s victory, the BJP which is the opposition party in the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has managed to retain the seat and maintain its tally of 21 seats in the 65-member MCC.

MCC Ward 18 comprises Yadavagiri, Manjunathapura, Medar Block and Railway Quarters and comes under Chamaraja Assembly segment that is presently represented by MLA L. Nagendra.

Speaking to presspersons after the BJP victory, Nagendra said that the BJP has retained the seat despite the efforts of the Congress and JD(S) to wrest the seat. Asserting that the Ward is a BJP fortress, he said that the BJP would have won by a huge margin had the educated voters of Yadavagiri turned up in large numbers to vote. The victory would spur the BJP to improve its performance in all future elections, he added. Former Mayor Sandesh Swamy, City BJP President Srivatsa and others were present.