Cong retains Council seat

bangalore: the congress retained the legislative council seat from the local authorities constituency in friday's by-election by a margin of 693 votes. counting of votes was taken up on sunday. congress candidate k.b. munivenkata reddy secured 1,177 votes while his nearest rival, jd(s) candidate and former mp c. narayanaswamy polled only 484 votes, despite support from the jd(u).the seat fell vacant following the death of congress member c. narayana reddy. munivenkata reddy is a relative of the deceased and former senate member of bangalore university. bjp candidate gurumurthy reddy secured 411 votes and counting was by first preferential votes. of the total 2,199 votes, 2,167 were polled while 95 votes were declared invalid.