Giving a setback to the BJP party in Karnataka, Congress candidate, K Jayaprakash Hegde defeated BJP nominee V Sunil Kumar by a significant margin of over 40,000 votes in the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha by poll. The by poll result was announced on Wednesday.

Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha was with DV Sadananda Gowda, who later stepped down when he was chosen to replace then chief minister B.S Yeddyurappa. The internal factional fight in BJP could have been a possible cause for the latest poll-debacle.

Yeddyurappa being an influential leader refused to campaign for the party over a tiff with the high command on reinstating him as chief minister of Karnataka.

Union Minister of Corporate Affairs and senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, who had been elated with this victory expressed his happiness and said that his party has retained the helm of Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha after 18-years and deemed it as the changing political trend in the state.

He also went on to say that Congress would uproot the "corrupt" BJP government in Karnataka. "The countdown has began," said Veerappa Moily.