Cong wins Meghalaya by-poll, humbled in K'taka

Lyngdoh polled 5,800 votes, while Tariang bagged 3,473 votes. The lone women legislator increased her winning margin from 1,593 in the 2008 assembly elections to 2,327 this time.

In 2008, Lyngdoh, then a member of the UDP, had defeated Tariang who had contested as independent candidate.

The four other candidates - Stephen Nongbet (Bharatiya Janata Party), Remeo Phira Rani (Hill State Peoples Democratic Party) and two

Independents, George Garry Lyngdoh and Andrew Aibok Jyrwa, forfeited their security deposit.

"I won despite personal attacks by my opponents. I must say they are yet to learn the game (of politics)," Lyngdoh said after emerging victorious.

She was under attack by her opponents who branded her as a "betrayer" after she resigned from the UDP and the assembly on March 31 before joining Congress, necessitating the by-poll.

Laitumkhrah constituency has always been considered as the strong hold of Lyngdoh family. Before Ampareen, the seat was represented by her brother Robert G Lyngdoh and their father late P G Marbaniang.

Congress is heading for a drubbing in the assembly by-polls to five seats in Karnataka with the ruling BJP and JD-S wresting one seat each from it.

Of the five seats that went to polls on August 18, the Congress held four and the JD-S one.

As per results from three seats, the JDS won two, retaining its strong hold of Ramanagara and wresting Chennapatna from Congress.

In Ramanagara, JD-S candidate K Raju defeated C M Lingappa of Congress by a margin of 22,019 votes while his party colleague M C Ashwath emerged victorious in Chennapatna defeating his nearest BJP rival and cine star C P Yogeshwar by a margin of 2,282 votes.

Yogeshwar, who had represented the constituency as the Congress MLA, had quit the party and unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Bangalore Rural as BJP nominee.

In Chitapur, Congress suffered a severe jolt when Priyanka Kharge, son of Union Labour Minister M Mallikarjun Kharge, was humbled by BJP's Valmiki Naik by a margin of 1,606 votes.

Housing Minister V Somanna, who had quit Congress to join the BJP, is trailing in Govindarajanagar in Bangalore by over 1,000 votes behind his nearest Congress rival Priya Krishna.

BJP's G N Najundaswamy is leading by 6,743 votes in Kollegal (Reserved) seat as per the latest trends.