It's sweet revenge for BJP nominee in Devadurga

It was sweet revenge for BJP candidate Shivanagouda Nayak in the byelection to the Devadurga Assembly constituency (ST reserved).

With his victory over Rajashekar Nayak of the Congress, Shivanagouda has avenged his defeat at the hands of Rajashekar’s father A Venkatesh Nayak in the 2013 Assembly elections.

Incidentally, Shivanagouda is Rajashekar’s son-in-law. Also, Shivanagouda had lost to Rajashekar’s brother B V Nayak (Congress) in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP nominee secured 72,647 votes, defeating his father-in-law by a margin of 16,871 votes. Karemma Gopalakrishna of the JD(S) managed to secure a meagre 9,156 votes and lost her deposit.

Independent candidate Shivaraj Dore managed to secure 1,837 votes, while 1,708 voters chose the NOTA (none of the above) option. Of the 12 postal ballots, eight went to the BJP and two to the Congress.

Postal ballots rejected
Two of the postal ballots were rejected.  Shivanagouda happens to be the grandson of Venkatesh Nayak’s sister. With this victory, Shivanagouda has put a stop to the domination of  Nayak’s family in the political sphere of the district.

Nayak has won the seat for the third time (twice as BJP nominee, once as JD(S) candidate. Congress and BJP workers at the counting centre were heard saying that the victory would not have been so easy for Shivanagouda, had Venkatesh Nayak’s widow Savithridevi been the Congress candidate.