Jayanagar Assembly election: Counting of votes begins, Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy takes early lead

The counting of votes cast in the election to the Jayanagar Assembly constituency began in Bengaluru on Wednesday morning. Polling was held on Monday and saw a voter turnout of around 55 percent. [caption id=“attachment_1525745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative image. AFP[/caption] Till the fourth round of counting, Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy — daughter of senior Congress leader and former minister Ramalinga Reddy — was ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s BN Prahlad by 5,348 votes. Karnataka Assembly elections were conducted on 12 May, but the election to the Jayanagar seat was countermanded after the BJP’s earlier candidate BN Vijayakumar, who was the MLA from the seat, died. Prahlad is Vijayakumar’s brother. Although it’s expected to be a direct two-horse race between Reddy and Prahlad, there are 19 candidates who contested the Jayanagar polls. On 5 June, the Janata Dal (Secular) had withdrawn its candidate from the poll to extend its support to the Congress, its ally in the ruling coalition. The police have heightened security in and around the counting centre. With inputs from agencies