Ruckus between Congress and BJP workers in Jayanagar over demand for re-counting

BENGALURU: A huge crowd gathered at the counting centre as confusion arose over the winning margin in Jayanagar constituency, where Sowmya Reddy, the Congress candidate, was declared winner by a razor thin margin. This comes amid the results of all the constituencies for the Karnataka Assembly election which have been announced earlier in the evening.

Earlier, Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy had won by 119 votes against BJP candidate Ramamurthy after counting of votes. But re-counting took place after BJP leaders complained that the counting of votes was not done properly. After the re-counting, surprisingly, Ramamurthy has secured a lead of 17 votes. This has led to a scuffle between Congress and BJP workers at the counting centre. After this, the Congress leaders have demanded that the results should not be announced.

A large number of Congress and BJP leaders and workers arrived at the scene late at night. Congress MP D K Suresh even got into an argument with the police. As number of BJP and Congress workers increased at the counting centre, a large number of KSRP and police were deployed at SSMRV College. At present, more than 1,000 policemen have been deployed at the spot.

Padmanabhanagar MLA R Ashoka, Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya were also at the scene and have taken this constituency as a matter of prestige.

On the other hand, D K Shivakumar and Ramalinga Reddy also arrived at the scene. Congress leaders are now consulting legal experts on the spot.