Bengaluru: Even as the Congress party faced rout in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Assam Assembly polls, except for Keralam, where it is all set to form the next government along with its alliance partners, the party had some reasons to smile in Karnataka as it managed to retain both Bagalkot and Davanagere South Assembly Constituencies during the counting of votes this morning for the by-polls  held on April 9.

In Bagalkot, Congress candidate Umesh Meti, son of late H.Y. Meti, who had won during the 2023 Assembly polls, won by a massive margin of 22,867 votes against BJP’s Veeranna Charantimuth. While Umesh polled a total of 97,941 votes, Charantimuth managed to secure only 76,075 votes.

Meanwhile, in Davanagare South Constituency, Samarth Shamanur, grandson of late Shamanur Shivashankarappa, who was elected during the 2023 Assembly polls on a Congress ticket, won by a margin of 4,900 votes after 21 rounds of counting securing a total of 52,214 votes against Srinivas Dasakariyappa of BJP, who lost  securing  45,198 votes. 

The by-elections in both the Constituencies of North Karnataka were necessitated following the deaths of MLAs Shamanur Shivashankarappa (Davanagere South) and H.Y. Meti (Bagalkot).