JOIN USGreenhorn defeats veteran in DK
While the political novice polled 4,99,385 votes, the veteran Congressman polled 4,58,965 votes. All the 9 other candidates including veteran B Madhava (CPM) (18,328) and BJP-rebel candidate U Rama Bhat (5,960) have lost their deposits.
Though both Nalin Kumar Kateel and B Janardhan Poojary maintained lead in alternate rounds initially, Poojary could not overtake Nalin after the completion of 200 booths (out of 1,518 booths).
In fact, Nalin steadily increased the margin after every round of counting.
It was over 7,000 votes after 300 booths; 12,474 votes after 500 booths; 21,012 votes after 600 booths; 29,817 after 800 booths; 36,266 votes after 1,100 booths; and finally 40,420 votes after counting votes of all the 1,518 booths.
Out of the 635 postal ballots, 424 were valid while 211 were invalid votes.
Once the difference of votes crossed 20,000 (after completion of counting around 600 booths), Poojary visited all the rooms where counting was going on, met the Congress agents (representatives) and left the venue.
He did not speak with any media persons, though a few made futile bid.
Speaking to media persons after Nalin was declared the winner, Nalin termed his victory as the victory of party activists.
“The God provided justice to the party workers who have worked so hard,” he said and added that even on the day of voting, the party workers went from door to door creating an awareness and urging the voters to exercise their franchise.
“I was confident of winning the elections by a margin of over 35,000 votes after my first round of visit to the entire constituency,” he said.
Stating that the voters have opted for ‘Hindutva,’ as he had sought votes on the basis of Hindutva, he said he will live upto the expectations of the public as 50 per cent of the public have exercised their franchise for him. When contacted, Dr Thirumalaraya Halemane, an NRI based in the US and one of the highly qualified candidates in Dakshina Kannada constituency with double masters degree and PhD to his credit, said that he returned to the US on May 3 and will be back on May 20.
As the district administration and Election Commission has banned victory celebrations and bursting of crackers till May 18, no party worker celebrated the victory in public.