The infighting within the BJP did them in and the party's prestigious constituency -- Udupi-Chikmagalur -- where the Congress won the bypolls, reports rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.

The by-election to this Parliamentary constituency which was held by D Sadananda Gowda was won by the Congress by over 40,000 votes.

The seat had fallen vacant after Gowda resigned as MP after he was made the Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Congress candidate, K Jayaprakash Hegde won the seat by defeating the BJP's Sunil Kumar in the bypoll that was held on March 18.

The poll had attracted a lot of interest as it was considered to be a prestigious seat for the BJP. When elections to this seat was held in the year 2009, the Congress candidate, Hegde was defeated by a large margin by Gowda.

However, when it came to canvassing, there was a palpable lacklustre effort from the BJP. In fact, party president Nitin Gadkari who had come down to discuss this election, but had to return halfway as he had to deal with the problems of infighting within the party.