P Chidambaram compares Congress-JD(S) alliance with Virat Kohli; proclaims 'it has delivered' after bypoll success

With the JD(S)-Congress alliance appearing set to win four of five bypoll seats -- three Lok Sabha constituencies and two legislative assembly constituencies -- in Karnataka, for which counting is underway, appreciating the progress of the coalition, Congress' senior leader P Chidambaram took to Twitter and compared the performance with Indian Cricket team Captain Virat Kohli. 

With the result appearing established even as the counting of votes was in progress, the Congress leader proclaimed that the 'coalition has delivered'. He wrote:

Read: Karnataka Bypolls Results LIVE: As BJP Takes Initial Lead, Congress-JD(S) Alliance To Undergo Its First Litmus Test

This is hardly the first time that the former Finance Minister has hailed Virat Kohli. During the recent tour of England, he had posted the following tweet:

The ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition's candidates in Karnataka were leading in two Lok Sabha constituencies and two Assembly segments in the by-polls held Saturday, according to trends. The BJP was ahead in the Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat.

The Congress was leading in Ballari and its coalition partner Janata Dal (Secular) in the Mandya parliamentary seats, electoral officials said. The JD(S)-Congress coalition was also leading in Ramanagara and Jamkhandi Assembly segments respectively.

In Ballari, Congress' V S Ugrappa was leading by 84,257 over Bharatiya Janata Party's J Shantha.

BJP's B Y Raghavendra, the son of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, was leading ahead of JD(S)' Madhu Bangarappa by 9,665 votes in Shivamogga. In Mandya, JD(S)' Shivarame Gowda was leading over BJP's Siddaramaiah. The vote counts were being conducted in the engineering and government colleges that have been taken up as counting centres.

The bypoll wins come as a significant success for the JD(S)-Congress alliance that had come into being shortly after the recent Karnataka assembly elections that had seen the parties finishing the second largest (Congress) and third-largest (JDS) respectively, behind the BJP. However, while BJP's Yeddyurappa was invited by the Governor to form a government, he didn't have the requisite support to form a majority, and after a week-long controversy, with parties sequestering their MLAs in resorts to prevent horse-trading, and developments in New Delhi in the Supreme Court, HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S), with support from the Congress, formed a government and became chief minister.