Congress veterans Margaret Alva, Poojary lose in Karnataka

 Among the prominent politicians in Karnataka, Congress veterans Margaret Alva and B. Janardhana Poojary lost in the Lok Sabha elections Saturday while former chief minister and Janata Dal-Secular leader H.D. Kumaraswamy won, as results started pouring in.

Margaret Alva lost in Uttara Kannada to sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Anath Kumar Hegde by 22,769 votes. She had lost to Hegde in 2004 also.

Janardhana Poojary, a former central minister, lost to the BJP's Nalin Kumar Kateel by 40,420 votes in the Dakshina Kannada constituency.

H.D. Kumaraswamy wrested the Bangalore Rural seat from the Congress by a margin of 130,275 votes. He avenged the defeat of his father and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda who had lost to Congress novice Tejaswini Gowda in the 2004 polls.

According to election officials, the BJP has retained the Chikkodi, Bijapur (SC) and Bellary (ST) seats, while it bagged the redrawn Haveri constituency in Malnad region.

The Congress wrested the Mysore seat from the BJP, when its candidate A.H. Vishwanath defeated sitting MP C.H. Vijayashankar by a margin of 7,691 votes.

In Chikkodi, BJP nominee Katti Ramesh Vishwanath defeated P.B. Hukkeri of the Congress by 55,049 votes, while in Bijapur (SC), the party's Ramesh Chandapur Jigajinagi defeated P.K. Rathod of the Congress by 42,404 votes.

In the iron-ore-rich Bellary (ST) constituency, BJP's lone woman candidate in the state J. Shanta defeated N.Y. Hanumanthappa of the Congress by a slender margin of 2,243 in a close contest.
In Haveri, Udasi Shivkumar Chanabasappa defeated Saleem Ahamed of the Congress by 88,220 votes.