Appearing set to retain its strong hold in Karnataka, the ruling BJP today won eight seats and is leading in 11 other constituencies out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
JDS won three seats including Hassan by party supremo and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and Bangalore rural where his son and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy romped home, both with huge margins of over one lakh votes.
BJP's principal adversary Congress has managed to bag only two seats and was leading in four constituencies, according to trends available till 1330 hrs.
Congress suffered a blow when its leader Margaret Alva lost to sitting BJP MP Anant Kumar Hegde in Uttara Kannada by a margin of 22,769 votes.
The victorious BJP candidates are: Ramesh V Katti (Chikkodi), Suresh Angadi (Belgaum), P C Gaddigoudar (Bagalkot), Ramesh C Jigajinagi (Bijapur),Janardhana Swamy (Chitradurga), Shivakumar Udasi (Haveri), Nalinkumar Kateel (Dakshina Kannada) and J Shantha (Bellary).
Union Minister and actor-turned-politician M H Ambareesh lost the battle to former minister N Cheluvarayaswamy of JDS in Mandya by 23,677 votes. Opposition Congress leader in the state assembly Mallikarjun Kharge won the Gulbara reserved seat defeating minister Revunaik Belamagi.
In Bangalore south, BJP General Secretary Anantkumar was leading by over 41,000 votes over Congress' Krishna Byregowda.