Sommanna had quit the Congress and the assembly to join the BJP ahead of the April-May Lok Sabha polls and was rewarded with the minister's post.

In Ramanagara, K. Raju of the JD-S defeated C.M. Lingappa of the Congress by 22,019 votes while in Channapatna M.C. Ashwath beat C.P. Yogeshwar of the BJP by 2,282 votes.

Yogeshwar had won the seat in May 2008 assembly polls on a Congress ticket. He crossed over to the BJP and contested the April-May Lok Sabha from Ramangara seat but lost to H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD-S.