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Riding on the wave generated by prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi across the country, an upbeat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday retained its hold on Karnataka. It won 17 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats while the beleaguered ruling Congress managed to win nine seats, though it was three more than in the previous elections held in 2009.
However, BJP’s tally has declined by two seats compared to the 2009 elections, when it had won 19 seats.
Of the 28 parliamentary seats across the state, where polling was held April 17, Janata Dal (S) could win only two seats as against three seats it had won in 2009. Its leader and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda retained his seat from Hassan.
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Among prominent winners from Congress are outgoing Union Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge from Gulbarga (SC), Petroleum and Natural Gas minister M Veerappa Moily from Chikballapur and outgoing Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) K H Muniyappa from Kolar (SC).
Lingayat strongman and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has won from Shimoga with a victory margin of 362,780 votes against his nearest rival Manjunath Bhandary of Congress. The much-hyped contest between Nilekani and Ananth Kumar saw Nilekani losing by a margin of 174,478 votes. Ananth Kumar, who had won with a margin of little over 37,000 votes in 2009 increased his victory margin by 4.6 times.
“As I said during the campaign, I will continue to work for you in the coming months and years. I may not have the opportunity to serve you as an MP, but my work for Bangalore continues,” Nilekani said in a statement while respecting the choice that the voters.
Among prominent losers from Congress are: Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys and former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India from Bangalore South, N Dharam Singh, former chief minister from Bidar, K Jayaprakash Hegde from Udupi-Chikmagalur, B Janardhan Poojary from Dakshina Kannada.
Kharge has won from Gulbarga constituency for the second time consecutively.
B Sreeramulu, close associate of mining baron Janardhan Reddy and BJP candidate from Bellary has managed to beat nearest rival N Y Hanumanthappa of Congress. Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj had opposed his reentry into the BJP.
Once again, Veerashaiva and Lingayat community has strongly supported the BJP in the state as its biggest leader Yeddyurappa rejoined the party a few months before the election.
In Hassan, Deve Gowda won with a margin of 100,462 votes against his nearest rival Manju A of Congress.
