BJP garnered leads in 136 Assembly constituencies

An Assembly constituency-wise break-up of Lok Sabha polls reveals that BJP managed to garner leads in no less than 136 constituencies in the State, followed by Congress (72) and JD(S) (16).

This is in sharp contrast to the Assembly polls held a year back when Congress mustered a majority with 121 seats, BJP securing 44 seats (after merger with KJP) and JD(S) 40 seats.

The Assembly-wise break-up also throws up interesting insights into the voting pattern.
In Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha constituency, where Union Minister M Veerappa Moily (Congress), former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy (JD-S) and B N Bache Gowda (BJP) were in fray, Moily won by a thin margin of 10,237 votes. While Bache Gowda came runner-up, Kumaraswamy was relegated to third position.

 A break-up of Assembly-wise data suggests that while Kumaraswamy won a sizeable lead in three of the eight assembly constituencies, his BJP counterpart won in as many constituencies of Yelahanka, Hoskote and Doddaballapur.

Moily secured leads in only two constituencies of Nelmangala and Gauribidanur. But the reason for Moily’s victory was him chipping away in all eight constituencies with consistent vote share.

While Moily garnered a consistent 40,000 or more votes in each of the eight constituencies, Bache Gowda and Kumaraswamy were unable to register such consistent numbers.

Of the three sitting MLAs from Congress, who contested the Lok Sabha polls, two of them lost in their home turf.  While Dharwad Lok Sabha candidate Vinay Kulkarni garnered only 49,760 votes, his rival and eventual winner, Pralhad Joshi of BJP secured a lead of 74,349 votes.

In Hassan LS seat, sitting Congress MLA from Arkalgud A Manju was able to garner only 63,321 votes compared to eventual winner H D Deve Gowda, who secured 77,764 votes. At the other end, BJP saw three of their candidates romp home with leads in all the eight assembly constituencies in  Shimoga, Udupi Chikmagalur and Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituencies.