Karnataka polls: BJP does not drown, but gasps to stay afloat
MANGALURU: Despite a strong wave in favour of Congress, the BJP managed to hold on to its forte of Coastal Karnataka although it ceded some of its ground to the Grand Old Party. The BJP which had won 16 of 18 seats in 2018, had to settle for just 13 seats now. The Congress improved its tally from 2 to 6. JDS drew a blank. According to political pundits, the Hindutva factor helped the BJP to offset the anti-incumbency wave to a large extent and Congress’ proposal to ban Bajrang Dal further helped the saffron party to consolidate its votes.
BJP was almost routed in Uttara Kannada where it won just two of the six seats. Speaker and six-time Sirsi MLA Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri had to bite the dust for the first time.
RV Deshpande (Congress) won for the record ninth time from Haliyal. Mankal Vaidya (Congress) won from Bhatkal by a huge margin of more than 32,000 votes. In Kumta, it was a humiliating defeat for Congress leader Margaret Alva’s son Nivedith Alva as he got just 19,270 votes.
In Udupi, it was a clean sweep for the BJP where all of its five candidates won. Except for V Sunil Kumar, who won from Karkala by a margin of over 4,600 votes, four others won by a comfortable margin.
In Dakshina Kannada, the BJP won six of the eight seats. In Puttur, Congress’ Ashok Kumar Rai won by a margin of 4149 votes.UT Khader (Congress) registered his fifth straight win from Mangaluru while veteran Congress leader B Ramanath Rai lost.