Bengaluru, May 13 (IANS) The Congress is also set to return to power in Karnataka with a historic mandate on Saturday, but some of its candidates won by small margins of less than 300 Votes, including former state unit chief Dinesh Gundu Rao.

As per the Election Commission, Rao, who contested from the Gandhinagar Assembly seat, managed to win by 105 votes - the smallest margin in the state - against BJP's Sapthagiri Gowda A.R. On the other hand, Congress state chief D.K. Shivakumar won from his Kanakpura seat by a margin of 122,392 votes over his JD-S rival B. Nagaraju, pushing the BJP to the third place.

Among other tightly-fought competitions, Congress' T.D. Rajegowda defeated BJP's D.N. Jeevaraya by a margin of 201 votes from Sringeri Assembly seat.

Congress' K.Y. Nanjegowda also defeated BJP's K.S. Magunta Gowda by a thin margin of 248 votes from Malur Assembly seat.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Sowmya Reddy was leading BJP's C.K. Ramamurthy by a margin of 294 votes from Jayanagar Assembly constituency.

BJP's Dinakar Keshav Shetty defeated JD-S candidate Suraj Naik Soni by a margin of 676 votes from the Kumta assembly seat.

The Congress is all set to win 136 seats in the southern state where the polling for the 224 member Assembly took place on May 10, whereas the BJP is set to win on 65 seats and the JD-S 19. The remaining four were won by two small parties (one each) and two Independents.

--IANS

aks/vd