Congress's Manjunath Bhandari, BJP's Kota Shrinivas Poojari win Dakshina Kannada MLC poll

MANGALURU: Social welfare minister Kota Shrinivas Poojari and Congress candidate Manjunath Bhandari won the state legislative council election from Dakshina Kannada bicameral constituency on Tuesday. Both the candidates secured majority required for victory in the counting of first preferencial votes. Meanwhile, SDPI candidate Ismail Shafi K lost the election.Of the 6,040 voters in the constituency, 6,011 had exercised their franchise during the election held on December 10. Of this, 56 votes were invalid. While Kota Shrinivas Poojari bagged 3,672 votes, Manjunath Bhandari secured 2,079 and Ismail Shafi got only 204. Poojari dedicated his victory to the hard work of the party workers. He has won the election for the fourth term.Bhandari thanked Congress workers and said he would work as an MLC from the local authorities' constituency to empower gram panchayats.