BANGALORE: BJP candidate PC Mohan defeated his nearest arch-rival Congress candidate HT Sangliana by a comfortable margin of 35,218 votes here under Bangalore Central Parliamentary Constituency.
Contesting for the first time for a Lok Sabha seat, Mohan’s maiden victory came with a total 3,40,162 votes he won.
Sangliana, former BJP MP from Bangalore North, got 3,04,944 votes while JD(S) candidate BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan secured 1,62,552 votes.
An independent candidate Shaik Bahadur got 34,055 votes much to the surprise of the other contestants. BSP candidate Vijay Raja Singh, who had added glamour by associating with film actresses and models for his campaigning, managed to get a mere of 6,363 votes.
Bangalore Central Parliamentary Constituency had the highest candidates contesting for the polls in the State. As many as 37 candidates had contested from Bangalore Central alone. Total voting in the constituency was 8,55,247 votes including eight rejected postal ballot votes. A total of 169 postal ballot votes were cast in which Mohan got 93 votes whereas Sangliana got 46 votes.
Bangalore Central included Sarvagna Nagar, CV Raman Nagar, Shivajinagar, Shanthi Nagar, Gandhinagar, Rajajinagar, Chamarajpet and Mahadevpura assembly constituencies.
Results were announced for a total of 1,782 polling booths in the constituency.
There was a neck-to-neck competition between Sangliana and Mohan in the beginning but Mohan started to overtake Sangliana when the results were announced after counting of 900 polling booths. Thereafter, excitement started with Mohan dominating by bagging a huge lead.
As soon as it became clear that Mohan was to win, Zameer Ahmed Khan and Sangliana left the counting centre around 2.30 pm.
By then, the BJP supporters started celebrating their leader’s win by bursting crackers outside the counting centre. Hundreds of BJP supporters waited anxiously outside the centre for the final results. In the evening, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar and Kannada actor Jaggesh joined the jubilant supporters.
Speaking to media persons after the victory, Mohan said that he would give importance to infrastructure work and overall development of Bangalore.