Clapping and chanting 'Ayyappa saranam', about 200 frenzied devotees surrounded a woman pilgrim on Tuesday to prevent her from entering the Sabarimala shrine, suspecting her to be of menstrual age.

Reacting to the defeat in five constituencies in the by-elections, BJP leader Suresh Kumar said that it was time for introspection about the defeat.

Anand Nyamagowda of the Congress registered a victory against BJP candidate Kulkarni with a huge margin.

 Former chief minister Siddaramaiah expressed his happiness over the results of the by-election in the state.

“The celebration of Naraka Chaturdashi is meaningful in Ballary. People have moved from darkness to light. I wish the people of the state on the occasion of Deepavali”, Siddaramaiah tweeted.

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.