Bypolls: BJP wrests Chincholi Assembly seat from Cong

The father-son duo of Chincholi, Dr Umesh Jadhav and Dr Avinash Jadhav, delivered a big blow to Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge in his own home turf Kalaburagi.

While Umesh secured a thumping victory against the hitherto undefeated Kharge, his son Avinash secured the Chincholi Assembly seat in the bypoll by a margin of 8,030 votes.

The Chincholi victory will help the BJP shore up its numbers in the Assembly to 105. Avinash polled 69,109 votes while his rival Subhash Rathod managed to garner 61,079 votes.

Bypoll in Chincholi constituency was necessitated after Umesh resigned from the Congress to take on Kharge in the Lok Sabha elections to Gulbarga constituency.

Father’s good rapport with the voters of all communities, Modi wave and caste equation worked in favour of Avinash. He emerged victorious despite a concerted effort by the coalition partners to defeat the BJP.

Winning the seat was crucial for the BJP as it is widely believed among political circles that the party which wins Chincholi will hold the reins of power in the state.

Sympathy wave

The Congress-JD(S) alliance, however, had some saving grace with Kusumavati Shivalli, wife of late C S Shivalli, emerging victorious in Kundgol Assembly by-election.

In a seesaw battle, that kept everybody on the tenterhooks till the last round of counting, Congress’ Kusumavati rode the sympathy wave to Vidhan Soudha.

She staved off S I Chikkanagoudar of the BJP by a slender margin of 1,611 votes.

The Congress and coalition partner JD(S) had left no stone unturned to retain the seat with Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar himself taking charge of the bypolls here.

The Congress leaders had camped in the region for 15 days and had taken up extensive campaign for their candidate.

“Saddened by the untimely death of my husband C S Shivalli, the voters here reposed their faith in me and supported me. I am indebted to the people of the constituency. I will make use of this opportunity to fulfil the dreams of my husband and also the aspirations of the people,” Kusumavati told DH.