KARWAR/BENGALURU: BJP leader Anant Kumar Hegde, known for his hardline Hindutva and controversial statements that often put his party leaders in a tight spot, won the Lok Sabha polls by the highest vote margin in the state.
Hegde’s victory margin against his nearest rival JDS candidate Anand Asnotikar was 4,79,649 votes. He secured 7,86,042 votes (68.15 per cent) as against Asnotikar’s 3,06,393 votes (26.56 per cent). Hegde has been elected for the sixth time from Uttara Kannada LS constituency.
From the first round of counting itself, Hegde maintained a good lead. Before going to the polls, Hegde and other BJP leaders were confident of he winning with a two lakh lead. But the result on Thursday was surprising for even BJP leaders.
According to a senior BJP leader, Hegde was confident of winning and the Modi factor too helped him in a big way. Many Congress supporters also voted for Hegde as the party had not put up its candidate and the seat was given to JDS that has no base in the district, he said.
In Bangalore South, debutant BJP’s Tejasvi Surya recorded a victory margin of 3,31,192 even beating his predecessor Ananth Kumar’s victory margin in 2014. His opponent was Congress senior leader
B K Hariprasad.