DHARWAD/KALABURAGI: In the keenly contested bypolls to two assembly segments in the state, the BJP has managed to win one, taking its tally in the assembly to 105. The Congress which did extremely bad in the Lok Sabha polls, however, managed to retain Kundgol assembly segment. In Kundgol, Congress candidate Kusamavati Shivalli defeated BJP candidate S I Chikkangoudar by a narrow margin of 1,601 votes. In the last assembly election, Chikkangoudar had lost to C S Shivalli by just 634 votes. The bypoll was necessitated due to death of CS Shivalli. Bypoll in Chincholi was necessitated after Dr Umesh Jadhav quit Congress and joined BJP to contest LS polls against Mallikarjuna Kharge. 

Determined to win both the seats, the Congress had deployed most of its ministers in the two assembly segments. While senior leader Mallikarjuna Kharge, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and many ministers were camping in Chincholi, Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar and a big contingent of Congress leaders campaigned in Kundgol. For BJP, BS Yeddyurappa and other senior leaders, including former CM Jagadish Shettar, B Sriramulu, MLC N Ravi Kumar campaigned extensively.  
Political analyst N Kattishettar said that sympathy and Congress’s campaign strategy were the main reasons for the party’s victory. While the Congress candidate secured 77,640 votes, the BJP got 76,039 votes. 

In Chincholi, Dr Avinash Jadhav of BJP defeated Subhash Rathod of the Congress party by a margin of 8,030 votes. Dr Avinash secured 69,109 votes while Congress candidate Subhash Rathod got 61,079 votes.