New Delhi, May 15: Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa bagged the Shikaripura seat with a tremendous margin in the Karnataka Assembly elections. Yeddyurappa secured 86,983 votes, defeating Congress' Goni Malatesha by a margin of 35,397.

Other candidates in the fray were Janata Dal (Secular)'s (JD-S) HT Balegar, and Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Chandrakanta S Revanakar. The former chief minister contested from the Shikaripura seat for the seventh time and his constituency saw a good voter turnout of over 70 percent.

As per the official data by Election Commission, BJP has bagged 30 seats and is leading in 76, while Congress trails second with a victory on four seats and a lead on 70 seats.

Counting of votes began at 8 a.m. for 222 out of 224 assembly constituencies in 58,546 polling stations in the state. The elections in two constituencies, Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, both in Bengaluru have been postponed earlier.