Bengaluru, May 15: Apart from the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), an array of smaller parties and independent candidates entered the polling fray. While the chances of their victory were predicted to be bleak, the smaller parties were hopeful of clinching a couple of seats. However, no candidates from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Mahila Empowerment Party (MEP), Karnataka Makkala Paksha (KMP) and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha (SKP) emerged victorious.

The SKP leader, Darshan Puttannaiah, who was fighting under the Swaraj Abhiyan banner, ended up giving a tough fight to the JD(S). While Puttannaiah polled 73,336 votes, his JD(S) rival CS Puttaraju ended up bagging the seat with 95,406 votes.

In the last assembly elections, a total of 9 independent legislators were elected and one each from SKP and KMP. Meanwhile, two smaller parties - Badavara Shramikara Raitara Congress Party (BSRCP) and Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) - had won 4 and 6 seats, respectively. The two parties, however are no defunct as their leaders - the Reddy brothers and BS Yeddyurappa - made their way back to the BJP.

Exit polls had predicted negligible impact of the fringe political forces and independent candidates. Out of the six major post-election survey, the maximum predicted to be bagged by the 'Others' was 8 seats. A poll of poll average of all six exit polls predicted 3-5 seats for them.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 15, 2018 01:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).