The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) opened its account in Karnataka Assembly after its state president N Mahesh won the Kollegal assembly seat.

Mahesh defeated the Congress candidate AR Krishna Murthy by 6,562 votes.

Mahesh got 31,326 votes of the total votes in the constituency, while Murthy received 24,764 votes.

In this election, the constituency saw a voter turnout of 78.92%.

The BSP had contested this election in alliance with the JD(S) and fielded candidates in around 20 constituencies.

Kollegal assembly constituency is a reserved seat for scheduled caste.

There are a total of 2,09,122 voters in the constituency including 1,04,023 male, 1,05,053 female and 13 others.

In 2013, the Congress won this seat with a margin of 10,193 votes securing 32.36% of the total votes polled.

The Congress won this seat in the 2008 Assembly Elections with a margin of 11,798 votes (9.06%) registering 28.72% of the votes polled.

First Published:May 15, 2018 4:37 PM IST