The constituency was in the limelight for various reasons, significant among them being UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi preferring newbie H T Sangliana’s candidature over that of veteran party leader Jaffer Sharief. With a winning margin of about 35,000 votes, the people’s mandate was clearly with the BJP. A combination of Bangalore North and Bangalore South Assembly constituencies, the delimited Bangalore Central Lok Sabha Constituency fell in BJP strongholds, Rajajinagar, Chamarajpet, Gandhinagar and Mahadevapura. As it turned out, these places ultimately proved costly for Congress candidate H T Sangliana, while Mohan made a clean sweep of the votes here.
Incidentally, Sangliana had won from Bangalore North in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket.
(Published 16 May 2009, 20:23 IST)