Surprise wins and shock defeats

The 2018 election results on Tuesday have thrown up some big surprises and shock defeats.

The biggest loser perhaps is outgoing chief minister Siddaramaiah, who suffered a humiliating defeat in Chamundeshwari against JD(S)’s G T Deve Gowda, who trounced him by a margin of 36,042 votes. Siddaramaiah, however, managed to win Badami by a whisker, where he defeated BJP’s B Sriramulu by 1,619 votes.

But Sriramulu too managed a victory in Molakalmuru by defeating Congress’s Yogesh Babu by 42,045 votes.

JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy, who too contested from two seats — Ramanagar and Channapatna — emerged victorious in both. Party hopper and BJP candidate C P Yogeshwara, who had already predicted his loss a day before, was defeated by Kumaraswamy.

Interestingly, Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra Siddaramaiah, a political greenhorn, captured Varuna (his father’s homeground), by defeating BJP’s Thotadappa Basavaraju by 58,616 votes.

As many as 16 of the 34 Cabinet colleagues of Siddaramaiah lost the election, while over 62 of the 108 sitting MLAs who were given a ticket, were defeated.

The ministers of the previous Congress government who lost the elections are — T B Jayachandra (Sira), Ramanath Rai (Bantwal), H C Mahadevappa (T Narsipur), H Anjaneya (Holalkere), Umashree (Terdal), Sharan Prakash Patil (Sedam), S S Mallikarjun (Davangere North), Kagodu Thimmappa (Sagar), Santosh Lad (Kalghatgi), Basavaraj Rayareddi (Yelburga), A Manju (Arkalgud), Rudrappa Lamani (Haveri), H M Revanna (Channapatna), Mohana Kumari/Geetha (Gundlupet) and Vinay Kulkarni (Dharwad).

Some of the big winners are Congress’ K R Ramesh Kumar, who retained Srinivaspur against serious odds. Kumar was facing JD(S)’s Venkatashiva Reddy for the 9th consecutive time.

Both leaders have won alternately. According to the precedent, Reddy was supposed to win, but Kumar defeated him by 10,630 votes.

Some of the big losers include JD(S)’s Madhu Bangarappa, who lost to his brother Kumar Bangarappa in Sorab by 13,286 votes. Mining baron Janardhan Reddy’s brother Somashekar Reddy trounched another miner and Congress leader Anil Lad in Ballari City by 16,155 votes.

Malikayya Guttedar, who defected to the BJP from the Congress ahead of the elections, faced defeat in Afzalpur against Congress’ M Y Patil by 10,594 votes. In Bengaluru, V Somanna won against sitting MLA Priya Krishna from the Congress by 11,375 votes in Govindarajnagar constituency. Also, N A Haris, who was under a cloud (owing to his son’s arrest), recaptured Shanthinagar by 18,205 votes.