VS Ugrappa of Congress in Ballary Lok Sabha seat, Shivarame Gowda of JDS in Mandya LS seat and Anitha Kumaraswamy of JDS in Ramanagar emerged victorious in the by-elections with a huge margin. But the Election Commission is yet to announce their victory officially.

As the counting of votes has begun, Anitha Kumaraswamy is leading in Ramanagara Assembly constituency. While BY Raghavendra is leading in Shimoga, JDS candidate Shivaramegowda is leading in Mandya Lok Sabha constituency.

The results for the three Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies in Karnataka, which went to bye-elections on Saturday, will be declared on Tuesday. Even as all eyes are on the counting of votes at the five centres, which began at 8 am, both sides - the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance, have called the bypolls a semi-final before the 2019 general elections.

“I am fed up with the electoral politics. I will be in politics. But I will not be in electoral politics”, former chief minister Siddaramaiah reiterated.

Minister for Minority Welfare, Hajj and Wakf BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan alleged that the BJP has been making the ‘Mysore Tiger’ Tipu Sultan jayanti just for vote bank politics.

BJP State president and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa said that the state government should drop the idea of celebrating Tipu Jayanthi without making it as a prestigious issue, considering the feelings of the people.

Nasir Ahmed, who was elected to the Legislative Council from the Assembly and Prakash Rathod and UB Venkatesh who were nominated to the Council, took oath as new Council Members at the Vidhana Soudha here on Monday.