Supreme Court Halts Recount for Sringeri Seat, BJP Leader Loses MLA Status, Congress Regains Victory The Supreme Court has imposed a stay on the recount of votes for the Sringeri constituency in Karnataka, leading to the removal of BJP leader DN Jeevraj from his MLA status and reinstating Congress candidate TD Raj Gouda as the rightful winner. The court ruled that the election commissioner had improperly conducted a second count of postal ballots, violating procedural norms. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for May 21. The dispute originated from the 2023 state assembly elections, where Congress’s TD Raj Gouda initially won the Sringeri seat. However, BJP’s DN Jeevraj contested the results, leading to a prolonged legal battle. After nearly three years of litigation, the Karnataka High Court ordered a recount of 279 postal ballots in April 2026. On May 2, 2026, the recount revealed that 248 of Gouda’s votes were invalidated, and Jeevraj was declared the winner by 52 votes. Congress challenged this outcome, arguing that the election commissioner had exceeded its authority by including 562 additional postal ballots that were originally valid and in Gouda’s favor. The Supreme Court accepted Congress’s appeal, stating that the commissioner’s actions were arbitrary and violated the legal framework. The court emphasized that once ballots are deemed valid, a second count is unnecessary and that the commissioner’s deviation from the High Court’s directive was unacceptable. The court’s order reinstated the original results, effectively stripping Jeevraj of his MLA status and restoring Gouda’s victory. Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K. Vinod Chandran, presiding over the case, criticized the election commissioner’s conduct, stating that the court’s intervention was essential to rectify the procedural errors.#karnataka #congress #supreme_court #td_raj_gouda #dn_jeevraj
