Bengaluru: Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy won the south Bengaluru's Jayanagar Assembly constituency contest by  defeating BJP nominee B.N. Prahlad. Reddy won by nearly 3,000 votes.

According to election officials, Congress' Sowmya Reddy secured 54,457 votes against her nearest rival from the BJP, B N Prahlad, who managed 51,568 votes.

Vote counting had began at 8 a.m. this morning at a private college in the upscale suburb. Polling was held on Monday after the May 12 Assembly election in the seat was countermanded following the death of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) contestant B.N. Vijaya Kumar on May 4.

The BJP nominated Kumar's younger brother Prahlad as its candidate, while Sowmya is the daughter of Congress leader and former state Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy.

Fifty-five per cent polling was recorded in the Jayangar Assembly constituency on June 11. Nineteen candidates were in the fray.

Ahead of the polls, Janata Dal(S) had on June 5 pulled out its candidate from the contest and extended the party's support to its ruling coalition partner, the Congress.

This was the first election after coming to power, where both coalition partners had joined hands. Both Congress and JD(S) had fielded candidates against each other, despite being coalition partners, in the recent election to the Rajarajeshwari Nagar Assembly seat in the city.

Congress candidate Munirathna had won the seat, relegating the JD(S) candidate to a distant third behind BJP.

Congress now has 80 seats in the assembly.

(With agency inputs)