JOIN USThe intense battle saw leads changing between Congress nominee and former minister S S Mallikarjun and Siddeshwar. At one stage, some of the channels had declared that the Congress nominee had been elected from the constituency. However, the end result only brought smiles on the faces of the BJP, whose tally went up to 19 in the State.
As the counting started at 8 am, the Cong candidate S S Mallikarjun maintained a margin of 20,000 votes to his nearest rival from the BJP. But during the 11th round of counting the votes belonging to Channagiri and Davangere North were in favour of Siddeshwar and the balance shifted towards BJP. Finally, Siddeshwar was successful in securing his berth to the Parliament and established a lead of 2,024 votes after the last vote was counted.
Apart from Harihar, Davangere South Assembly segments the BJP bagged the remaining Assembly segments to ensure victory for Siddeshwar. However, Congress established its strong hold in Harapanahalli Assembly segment, the constituency of Revenue Minister Karunakar Reddy and amassed 12,260 votes. But, Channagiri Assembly segment was the decisive segment which turned the luck towards Siddeshwar who managed to secure 57,641 votes. The Congress managed to get 54,739 votes in Harapanahalli, 57,979 votes from Harihar Assembly segments and 53,399 votes at Davangere South. Interestingly, Congress candidate Mallikarjun was overjoyed thinking he would certainly win the election and posed for the camera also. But his joy turned to a shock after the last round of counting was completed.