BJP leaders and activists celebrated their party candidates victory soon after the election results was declared for South West Constituency.

D H Shankaramurthy was elected to Legsilative Council from graduates constituency for the fifth time while Capt Ganesh Karnik was elected for the second time.

However, both of them could not reach the target (quota) in their respective constituencies. While D H Shankaramurthy (BJP) polled 13,926 votes, S P Dinesh (Cong) managed to secure 10,140 votes and S L Bhoje Gowda (JDS) secured only 6,875 votes. Similarly, in the Teachers’ constituency, Capt Ganesh Karnik (BJP) polled 4,139 votes, Hosur Ramesh Joyappa (Cong) managed to secure only 627 votes.

Independent candidate K K Manjunath Kumar gave a tough competition to Karnik by securing 3,393 votes. The quota for graduates constituency was 14,066 votes while the quota for teachers’ constituency was 4,558 votes. Both the winners could not achieve the desired quota.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, MLA Yogish Bhat said the voters have not deserted the BJP in the polls. The people of South-West constituency have faith in the BJP. “In spite of negative publicity against the BJP, our candidates have registered success. This clearly indicates that the voters are supporting the good work carried out by the BJP,” he said.

Dakshina Kannada district BJP President Padmanabha Kottari attributed the success of the BJP candidates to the welfare programmes carried out by the BJP government in the last three years. “The intellectuals and the educated voters of the South-West constituency have identified our work and have supported us by casting their votes in favour of the BJP candiadtes.”

On the other hand, JD(S) leader Susheel Noronha said that though the BJP has won the election, the voters have shown their dislike to the candidates by casting votes to the opposition candidates. There is opposition to the BJP in the constituency. “With the splitting of the votes, the BJP had an upper hand,” he said.

District Congress Committee President and MLA Ramanath Rai said the South West constituency was the strong forte of the BJP. The Congress candidate had never won from the constituency.

“However, this time, we have given them a tough fight in the graduates constituency. However, the MLC election result will not have any impact in the coming Assembly elections,” he said.