BJP candidate C K Ramamurthy has won the Jayanagar Assembly seat in Karnataka by a slender margin of 16 votes against his Congress rival Soumya Reddy, officials said.

The elections to 224 Assembly seats in the state was held on May 10 and the polled votes were taken up for counting on Saturday.

“The result was announced by the officials at the Counting Centre at S S M R V College in Jayanagar” late on Saturday, a state Information Department official said in a statement.

Tension prevailed when the counting was taking place as the Congress state president D K Shivakumar along with state unit working president Ramalinga Reddy, who is also the father of Sowmya Reddy, and many other leaders staged a demonstration outside the polling booth, demanding justice.

They alleged misuse of government machinery to favour Ramamurthy.

Election officials declared Ramamurthy as the winner with a thin margin of 16 votes.

With this, the Congress has won 135 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly. The BJP has won 66 seats and the JD(S) 19, according to the Election Commission.