Mysuru:  Varuna Congress  candidate Dr. Yathindra, son of Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, has set a record of sorts in his electoral debut, by registering the highest margin of victory among all the Assembly segments of the district.

Dr. Yathindra, who secured 96,435 votes defeated his    nearest rival Thotadappa Basavaraju of BJP by a margin of 58,616 votes.

Basavaraju managed to get only 37,819 votes while Abhishek S. Manegar of the JD (S) who came third, succeeded in getting 28,123 votes.

Dr. Yathindra maintained a healthy lead in Varuna right from the first round and further consolidated his lead in the subsequent rounds, finally securing 96,435 votes.

By registering a record victory, Dr. Yathindra even outsmarted his father and CM Siddharamaiah, who could not record such a huge margin of victory, in the two previous elections (2008 and 2013) he had contested from Varuna Assembly segment.

However, Dr. Yathindra’s  electoral battle got easier when the BJP denied ticket to B.Y. Vijayendra, son of State BJP Chief B.S. Yeddyurappa, at  the last minute. Vijayendra had been briskly campaigning in the Constituency one month prior to the polls and he had made all ground work anticipating BJP ticket.

After denying the ticket to  Vijayendra, the BJP gave ticket to long-time party worker Thotadappa Basavaraju, who failed to make much impact in the polls, which largely helped in  Dr. Yathindra registering a record margin victory.