Congress’ Annapoorna wins Sandur assembly byelection

Sandur (Ballari): Congress maintained its hold on the Sandur assembly seat with its candidate Annapoorna Tukaram, wife of MP E Tukaram, winning by a margin of 9,649 votes. While Annapoorna secured 93,616 votes, BJP candidate Bangaru Hanumanth got 83,967 votes.
The Nov 13 byelection was necessitated after E Tukaram's resignation following his election to Lok Sabha from Bellary constituency. Though six candidates contested in the bypoll, the main battle was between Congress and BJP.
The electoral roll showed 2,36,402 registered voters, including 1,17,935 men, 1,18,438 women, and 29 others, with 76.24% voter participation.
The counting of votes began at Government Polytechnic College, Ballari, at 7am on Saturday under the supervision of deputy commissioner Prashant Kumar Mishra, SP Shobha Rani VJ, general observer Divya S Iyer, and other officials.
Annapoorna led in most counting rounds, briefly falling behind Hanumanth by 200 and 867 votes in the sixth and seventh rounds, respectively.
The victory margin varied during counting, beginning with 2,586 votes and reducing midway before settling at the final count. Annapoorna received 93,616 votes, including 10 postal votes. However, both parties increased their vote share compared to 2023, when Congress' Tukaram received 85,223 votes against BJP's Shilpa Raghavendra's 49,701 votes.
BJP's Hanumanth accused Congress of winning through financial incentives, claiming Rs 2,000 was paid per vote. While accepting the voters' decision, he suggested the narrow margin didn't indicate a decisive defeat for the BJP.