BENGALURU: Among the three Lok Sabha constituencies in Bengaluru, Bangalore Central witnessed an interesting turn with the Congress’ Mansoor Ali Khan giving a tough fight to three-time BJP MP PC Mohan, who was facing anti-incumbency.
The victory margin of Mohan, which was 70,968 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, was cut by Mansoor by more than half to 32,707 votes. The constituency has been under BJP’s control since 2009, and Mohan, who has won every election since then.
BJP leaders and Mohan, who had underestimated Mansoor, did not expect him to have given a close contest.
Mansoor held a strong lead against Mohan with over 80,000 votes in the morning, giving strong hopes to Congress workers, who started celebrating. However, post 2 pm, the tables had turned, and Mansoor started losing his hold when the votes polled in CV Raman Nagar, Gandhinagar and Mahadevapura started to be counted.
While the ECI website continued to project Mansoor as leading, Mohan came out of the counting centre post 2 pm and said he is having a clear lead margin of 35,000-40,000 votes, and claimed that he won.
He added that the counting results were getting uploaded on the ECI website late and added that he faced tough competition in the votes polled in Chamarajpet and Shivajinagar Assembly constituencies and that the people of Mahadevapura, CV Raman Nagar and Gandhinagar helped him win.
Mohan secured 6,58,915 votes, followed by Mansoor with 6,26,208 votes, and NOTA secured third position with 12,126 votes.