Bengaluru, Nov 10 (IANS): Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's N. Muniratna is all set to retain his Rajarajeshwari Nagar (RR Nagar) seat on Tuesday, after the bypolls to this constituency was necessitated following his disqualification by the Assembly speaker last year.

With the completion of 23 rounds of counting out of the total 25 rounds, Muniratna garnered 1,18,981 votes compared to his nearest rival and Congress candidate H. Kusuma's 65,501 votes.

With just two rounds of counting remaining, the BJP has already started celebrating his victory. Janata Dal (S) candidate V. Krishna Murthy has secured less than 10,000 votes.

Reacting to his success, Muniratna told reporters outside the counting centre that he would not be able to repay the gratitude to his voters.

"For me, voters are no less than God. I will work even harder to help my voters who have reposed faith in me to this an extent," he said.

Muniratna added that in his maiden elections, the voters had given him a lead of 17,000 votes in 2013 and in 2018 they gave him a lead of 26,000. Now they have given him a lead of more than 50,000 votes.

"I can't repay their gratitude even if I'm reborn seven times," he said amid loud cheers and drum beats.