Sringeri seat: After recount of postal votes, Karnataka Congress leaders seek divine justice

Congress leader T.D. Raje Gowda, who lost the Sringeri assembly seat to D.N. Jeevaraj of the BJP following the recount of postal ballots on May 2, has been visiting places of worship in the constituency, seeking divine justice in the vote count dispute.

On Saturday (May 9, 2026), Mr. Raje Gowda and his associates offered prayers at Veerabhadra Swamy Temple, Jamia Masjid, and a church in Koppa. At each place of worship, the Congress leader asserted that he had been denied justice in the election counting, that neither he nor his party had done anything wrong, and appealed to the Almighty to punish those responsible for the wrongdoing.

Congress leader Sudhir Kumar Murolli, who served as the party’s counting agent, also offered prayers, refuting the BJP’s allegation that a bundle of invalid votes had been counted as valid votes polled for the Congress candidate during the original counting in 2023. “We have not committed any wrongdoing in the counting. Those who tampered with the postal votes must be punished,” he said.

Mr. Raje Gowda had won the Sringeri seat in the 2023 counting, defeating Jeevaraj by a margin of 201 votes. Mr. Jeevaraj subsequently moved court, seeking a recount of postal votes. During the recount, 255 votes that had been counted in favour of Raje Gowda in the original count were declared invalid, citing multiple entries. Consequently, Raje Gowda lost the seat to Jeevaraj. Since then, Congress leaders have alleged that the postal votes were tampered with to favour the BJP candidate.

BJP leaders also on temple run

In an interesting development, B.S. Sathish and S.N. Ramaswamy — both BJP leaders who had served as counting agents for Jeevaraj in 2023 — also visited several temples, swearing before the deities that no irregularities had taken place during the original counting, contrary to allegations made by certain sections within the BJP.

In a press release, Mr. Sathish said that following the change in final results after the recount of postal votes on May 2, a few “miscreants” within the BJP accused him and Ramaswamy of having helped the opposing candidate during the 2023 counting.

“Some people are engaged in negative campaigning against us. We therefore appeared before the deities and solemnly declared that we had done nothing wrong and that the 2023 vote counting was conducted transparently. There is reason to suspect how votes that were deemed valid in 2023 were suddenly rendered invalid during the 2026 recount,” said Mr. Sathish, also demanding a formal investigation into the matter.

Both Sathish and Ramaswamy visited the Veerabhadra Swamy Temple in Koppa on May 8, and proceeded to Dharmasthala the following day, where they again made solemn declarations before the deity, affirming their role in a transparent counting process and leaving it to the almighty to judge those who had committed wrongdoing.