Congress wins RR Nagar polls

Bengaluru: Proving his critics and those who expected him to lose on account of the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) scam exposed during  the assembly poll, wrong, Congress candidate, Munirathna won by a big margin of 25,492 votes over Tulasi Muniraj of the BJP in the Rajarajeshwarinagar (RR Nagar) Assembly poll on Thursday.

Mr Munirathna, who netted 1,08,064 votes, maintained the lead right from the start of counting.

His closest rival, Mr Muniraju secured 82,572 voters and the JD(S) candidate A. H. Ramachandra had to be content with  third place with 60,360 votes.

The election to the RR Nagar constituency was put off by the Election Commission of India (ECI) after around 9,000 voter identity cards were found in an apartment in Jalahalli, just a few days ahead of the May 12  polls. It was alleged that Mr Munirathna was behind the scam, which was widely expected to dent the image of the Congress and make it tough for it to win from the constituency.

While both the BJP and JD(S) tried to capitalise on the scam by running a strong campaign in the constituency, the voters appeared to have a mind of their own. JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and its state president, now chief minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy  campaign heavily in the area.