Chennapatna Assembly bypoll results: Yogeshwar takes lead over Nikhil Kumaraswamy

Vote counting for Channapatna Assembly seat sees Congress and NDA workers gather as leads fluctuate.

The counting of votes for the hotly contested Channapatna Assembly seat is underway even as hundreds of slogan shouting workers from Congress and NDA gathered in front of the Government Engineering College here.

While the initial trends had NDA candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy leading by a slender margin, Congress candidate C.P. Yogeshwar was leading by a margin of about 11,000 votes by around 10 a.m. after eight rounds of counting. The Congress workers were boisterous after Mr. Yogeshwar snatched the lead after trailing for some time. At the end of each round as news emerged about the leads, crowd raised slogans hailing Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar.

“I am hopeful that the God and people have blessed me. I am confident that Channapatna has voted for a young leader,” NDA candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy said in his reaction on the early trends.

Though Janata Dal Secular workers remained mute after leads started increasing, a party worker said that the Congress leaders could be shortlived. “We are expecting Congress to take lead in Channapatna town where Muslim seems to have consolidated and voted for Congress. This could just go down when ballot boxes from rural areas are counted,” Karthik Gowda said.

Four time legislator C.P. Yogeshwar, who quit BJP ahead of by polls to join Congress, is trying his luck in electoral politics again after losing to Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy twice in the last two elections. Mr. Nikhil has earlier lost Mandya parliamentary seat in 2019 and Ramanagar assembly constituency in 2023.

The Channapatna by polls have been necessitated by the resignation of Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy after he was elected from the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency. The bypoll has become a prestigious battle field for both Mr. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Shiva Kumar, who are involved in a bitter turf war over Vokkaliga leadership.

Heavy police security has been thrown around the counting centre, located on the old Bengaluru -Mysuru highway.