The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday bagged 110 seats and is leading in one in the elections to the 224-member Karnataka assembly.

The Congress, the other national party, won 80 seats, while the Janata Dal-Secular won 27 seats.

The independents have won 6 seats.

The BJP's performance was significant as it put up a good show in virtually all the regions except some pockets in the south, considered the stronghold of JD-S. The victory was sweeter for BJP, which had the ignominy of heading a seven-day government after flip-flops in its ties with JD-S, which pulled the rug from its under feet late last year.

Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy of JD-S won Ramanagaram seat for the second consecutive time beating his nearest BJP rival M Rudresh by a margin of 47,260 votes.

Congress's Mamata Nichhani, daughter of former chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde was in the third position.

Former minister and Congress heavyweight R V Deshpande lost the Haliyal seat to JD-S's Sunil Hegde by a margin of 5,425 votes.

The BJP's Narasimha Naik bagged the Shorapur seat, beating his nearest Congress rival Raja Venktappa Naik by 4,000 votes, while former minister B Sriramulu defeated Ramprasad of Congress in Bellary Rural (Reserved) by over 25,000 votes. In Sullia (SC), BJP's S Angara humbled Dr Raghu of Congress by over 5,300 votes.

Former chief minister Dharam Singh lost to BJP's Doddappa Gowda Patil Naribol in Jewargi by a margin of 612 votes.

KPCC president M Mallikarjun Kharge won by a margin of 17,456 votes. 

In Kumta, Dinakar Keshav Shetty of JD-S won by a slender margin of 20 votes against his nearest Congress rival.

Former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah (Congress) won the Varuna seat.

Additional Reportage: UNI