Chikkamagaluru (Karnataka), May 2 (IANS) In a closely watched development, Congress MLA T.D. Rajegowda on Saturday emerged victorious in the recounting of postal ballots in the Sringeri Assembly constituency in Karnataka.

The High Court had ordered a recount of the postal ballots. Following the completion of the process, Rajegowda has once again secured victory.

Reacting to the development, Rajegowda said that the High Court had ordered the recounting of postal ballots.

“I could have approached the Supreme Court with an appeal, but I chose not to, as I wanted the truth to come out. Today, I have won again, and my supporters have reason to celebrate. Continuous allegations were made against me, but truth has prevailed,” he said.

“I was not present during the counting. I arrived at the spot after the victory was announced in 2023. They made false allegations and demanded my disqualification and a recount. The court rejected all the charges and ordered a recount. The government had to spend crores of rupees on the recount, and this cost should be recovered from them,” he stated.

“In my 13-year political career, I have had the opportunity to contribute to this constituency for only about a year. Apart from that, the opposition has been creating obstacles to development. The opposition leaders will now have to be careful. The elected representative should be given an opportunity to serve the people,” Rajegowda said.

Celebrations broke out in front of IDSG College in Chikkamagaluru, where supporters of Rajegowda raised slogans, showered flowers, and expressed their happiness over his victory.

The Sringeri constituency had drawn significant attention during the 2023 Assembly elections. In that election, BJP candidate D.N. Jeevaraj had lost to Congress candidate T.D. Rajegowda by a narrow margin of just 201 votes.

Out of a total of 1,822 postal ballots cast in the election, 279 votes were rejected. Expressing dissatisfaction over the result, Jeevaraj had sought a recount, but the then District Election Officer did not consider the request and declared Rajegowda as the winner. Challenging this decision, Jeevaraj approached the High Court.

Confusion arose during the vote recounting process as only 270 ballot papers were found out of the 279 rejected votes. The remaining nine rejected ballot papers had gone missing, but were eventually traced after an intensive search by officials.

From early morning, officials had been conducting a thorough search for the missing nine ballot papers. The delay in locating these ballots led to the recounting process being significantly delayed beyond the scheduled time.

–IANS

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