Congress candidate and former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday retained the prestigious Chamundeswari assembly seat defeating his nearest Janata Dal-Secular rival Shivabasappa by a wafer thin margin of 257 votes.
In the keenly-contested bypoll, held on December 4, Siddaramaiah polled 1,15,512 votes against his Bharatiya Janata Party-backed JD-S rival Shivabasappa, who got 1,15,255 votes.
Siddaramaiah was declared elected after 27 rounds of counting at the Maharani's Arts College in Mysore.
The bypoll was necessitated following Siddaramaiah's resignation from the seat, won on a JD-S ticket, prior to joining the Congress.
Though 14 candidates were in the fray, including JD-U candidate A S Guruswamy and Samajwadi Party nominee B Karunakaran, it was virtually a direct fight between the veteran Siddaramaiah and an electoral novice Shivabasappa.
The bypoll witnessed a high-voltage campaign by the Congress and the ruling JD(S)-BJP combine.
An estimated 66.31 percentage of the 3.68 lakh electorate had exercised its franchise in the bypoll to this Karnataka assembly seat.
The Ruling Left Democratic Front on Thursday retained the Thiruvambadi assembly seat in Kerala.
The LDF won the seat by a slender margin of 175 votes over the United Democratic Front.
Congress candidate Punjilal Parmar on Thursday won the Dungarpur assembly seat in Rajasthan defeating BJP's Suramal Parmar by a margin of 9,879 votes.
Bypoll in this Congress stronghold was necessiated after the death of Congress legislator Nathu Ram Ahar.
Congress candidate Prakash Bharsakhle won the Daryapur assembly bypoll in Maharashtra.
Janata Dal-United candidate Vishwanath Singh won the bypoll to Manihari assembly seat in Bihar defeating his Congress rival Hamid Mobarak by over 2,000 votes.
Desang M Sangma of the Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday won the bypoll to the Rongjeng assembly constituency in Meghalaya's East Garo Hills district defeating his nearest rival independent candidate Sujit Sangma by a margin of 4,671 votes.
Desang Sangma polled 7,415 votes and Sujit Sangma polled 2,744 votes, official sources said.
Cutting a poor figure for the Congress-led coalition government in the state, Mettrinson Momin (Congress) polled 2,342 votes. Independent candidate Ashutosh Marak polled 2,222 votes.
Both Congressmen Sujit Sangma and Ashutosh who were denied tickets by the party, contested as independents.
The seat fell vacant following the death of an associated Congress MLA Predickson Momin.
Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate Sayeeda Farhat Afroz on Thursday won the bypoll to the Islampur assembly seat in West Bengal defeating Trinamool Congress candidate Chaudhury Abdul Karim by 7,511 votes.
The CPI-M candidate polled 47, 927 votes while the TC candidate could get 40, 416 votes, official sources said.
Congress candidate candidate Hamidur Rehman came third with 22, 037 votes.
The Islampur bypoll was necessitated due to the death of sitting CPI-M MLA Farooq Azam.
With UNI Inputs
