Jayanagar Down To The Wire: What Really Happened At This Prestigious Bengaluru Seat

The results of the Karnataka Assembly elections were announced on Saturday (13 May).

While the overarching trend in the state was clear from early on with Congress gaining and maintaining its lead, the seat of Jayanagar in Bengaluru turned out to be a nail-biter.

Jayanagar was declared won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 16 votes on Saturday night after three re-counts and the Congress claiming an early victory.

The contest was between BJP’s C K Ramamurthy — an ex-corporator and Sowmya Reddy of the Indian National Congress (INC). It was apparent from the beginning that it would be a tight race and the margin of victory would be small.

According to reports from ground zero, three types of recounting were done by the officials in the presence of the candidates — total numerical tally, VVPAT tally matching, and re-verification of the postal votes.

Sowmya Reddy’s lead of a mere 160 votes was prematurely celebrated by the party. But the Election Commission of India (ECI) held out on issuing the certificate of victory.

ECI’s handbook says that if the possible victory of margin is less than the total number of postal ballots, then there should be a mandatory re-verification of all postal ballots.

It further mandates that even if no contestant requests for a recount, the returning officer must conduct a recount (Handbook of the Returning Officer).

The third re-count — held after the second recount showed a bigger margin for Congress than the third — put the contest to rest with the BJP candidate securing 16 more votes than the Congress.

While it was widely reported that three to four rounds of counting had occurred at the behest of BJP leaders, it was incorrect. BJP leaders Tejasvi Surya and R Ashoka were reported to have reached the counting stations much later.  

Congress leaders from other areas also descended onto Jayanagar’s SSRMV College late last night, but the EC officials carried out their duties without letting any group put them under pressure.