Karnataka election results 2018: Siddaramaiah loses Chamundeshwari, wins Badami

In the Karnataka election results, Siddaramaiah trails by over 12,000 votes in Chamundeshwari, a seat he has won five times in his political career. In Badami, he is leading by a slender margin.

Congress leader and Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah faces defeat in Chamundeshwari constituency and is narrowly ahead in Badami, as counting of votes for Karnataka elections on Tuesday showed that he is going to be voted out of power.

CM Siddaramaiah shows his inked finger after voting in the Karnataka assembly elections 2018, at Hundi village in Mysore. Counting of votes in Karnataka is underway on Tuesday. (PTI)

Siddaramaiah trails by over 28,000 votes in Chamundeshwari, a seat he has won five times in his political career, against his Janata Dal (Secular) rival G T Deve Gowda. He scraped through in Badami, defeating his nearest BJP rival B Sreeramulu by over 4,000 votes in a see-saw contest.

For Siddaramaiah, winning both seats was important to help him cement his claim for five more years as chief minister if the Congress were to win with a majority. The BJP had criticised Siddaramaiah’s decision to contest from two seats, saying he “accepted defeat even before the war has begun”.