Margin of defeat in Karnataka bypolls needs to be analysed, says Congress leader D K Shivakumar

Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar on Thursday said the party will analyse the reasons for the defeat in the two by-elections to the state assembly.

The party accepted the verdict of the people, but a detailed booth-wise analysis will be necessary to find out the issues behind the margin of defeat, he told reporters here.

Shivakumar, for whom the bypolls were the first election in the state under his stewardship of the party, claimed educated voters have cast their votes in favour of the Congress.

The ruling BJP on Tuesday swept the bypolls to Rajarajeshwari (RR) Nagar and Sira assembly segments, held on November 3, wresting the seats from opposition Congress and JDS respectively.

N Munirathna scored a hat-trick, defeating his nearest Congress rival Kusuma H by an impressive margin of more than 58,000 votes in RR Nagar, while in Sira Dr C M Rajesh Gowda won by a margin of over 13,400 votes, trouncing Congress' T B Jayachandra.

District Youth Congress president Mithun Rai, district Mahila Congress president Shalet Pinto, former MLA Vinay Kumar Sorake and others were present.