The Congress and the BJP have secured one seat each in the bye-elections to two Assembly seats in Karnataka - Chincholi and Kundgol. BJP's Avinash Jadhav won from the Chincholi Assembly constituency, securing 69,109 votes, while the Congress’s Kusuma Shivalli won from the Kundgol constituency with 77,640 votes, with a margin of 1,601 votes.
The results were declared along with the 2019 Lok Sabha election results, which saw the BJP emerging victorious in 25 seats. The Congress and JD(S) won one seat each and the independent candidate, Sumalatha won the Mandya segment.
Avinash Jadhav, the son of BJP MP (Member of Parliament) Umesh Jadhav, won with a margin of 8,030 votes in Chincholi.
The bye-elections were necessitated after Umesh Jadhav resigned as the Congress MLA earlier this year. Umesh Jadav quit the Congress after a fallout with the party veteran, Mallikarjun Kharge. Umesh Jadav accused Kharge of favouring the latter’s son Priyank Kharge and sidelining senior Congress leaders, who had put in far more effort in building the party base in Kalaburgi (known as Gulbarga before delimitation in 2008).
Although Avinash Jadhav was up against Subash Rathod of the Congress, the fight for Chincholi was a proxy election battle between Mallikarjun Kharge and Umesh Jadhav. Although there were 12 candidates in the fray, including one from the BSP, the bye-elections was a straight fight between Subash Rathod and Avinash Jadhav.
Kusuma Shivalli, wife of late Congress MLA CS Shivalli, won with a margin of 1,611 votes in Kundgol. The bye-elections were necessitated after the death of CS Shivalli in March this year.
The results come at a time when there are fresh talks of the BJP usurping the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the state. In the 224-seat Karnataka Assembly, the majority mark is 113 seats.
The strength of the coalition in the Assembly stands at 117 – with the Congress having 79 MLAs, the JD(S) with 37 MLAs and 1 BSP MLA. The BJP emerged as the single largest party in the elections with 104 seats. With Kusuma and Avinash winning, the strength of the coalition is now 118. BJP is now at 107 –105 MLAs plus two independents – R Shankar from Ranebennur and H Nagesh from Mulbagal constituencies.