5 biggest and 5 narrowest wins of the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections

The 2023 polls are scheduled for May 10 while results of the same are set to be announced on May 13

With the Karnataka Assembly elections fast approaching, the electoral battlefield is heating up, with both incumbents and the Opposition taking shots at each other. Star campaigners of the Congress like Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge are wooing the people of the state, while PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are preaching the cause of their party and campaigning for the BJP's candidates.

With voting slated to take place in mere days and politicians from both sides projecting landslide victories in multiple seats, we take a look at the biggest and narrowest margins of victory in the 2018 Karnataka elections.

5 narrowest wins:

1. Constituency: Maski | Winning candidate: Pratapgouda Patil; Party: Congress

The narrowest win of the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections went to the Congress' Pratapgouda Patil, who defeated the BJP's Basanagowda-Turvihal by a margin of 213 votes.

Patil, a three-time MLA from Maski, was among the Congress legislators who switched over to the BJP in 2021.

2. Constituency: Pavagada | Winning candidate: Venkataramanappa; Party: Congress

Venkataramanappa fetched 72,974 votes in the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, which was just 409 more than what the JD(S)'s K M Thimmarayappa received.

Venkataramanappa later became famous for something he would've liked to avoid. He was filmed slapping a youth in Tumkur who asked him for a proper drinking water facility and roads for his village.

3. Constituency: Hirekerur | Winner: Basavanagouda Patil; Party: Congress

Policeman-turned-actor-turned-politician, Patil won from the Hirekerur constituency with a margin as thin as 555 votes, defeating BJP's Ujaneshwara Banakar.

Despite winning on a Congress ticket, he was one of the MLAs responsible for the Kumaraswamy government's falling after he, along with 14 other MLAs, switched to the BJP.

4. Constituency: Kundgol | Winner: Channabasappa Sathyappa Shivalli; Party: Congress

The Congress' C S Shivalli became the Karnataka Municipalities Minister after defeating Chikkanagoudra Siddanagoud Ishwaragod of the BJP by a thin margin of 634 votes.

However, Shivalli could not enjoy his position for long since he passed away on March 22, 2019 from a massive cardiac arrest at the age of 58.

5. Constituency: Aland | Winner: Guttedar Subhash Rukmayya; Party: BJP

Rukmayya, a veteran politician who won from this constituency in 1994, '99, and 2008, won by a narrow margin of 697 votes.

He defeated the Congress' B R Patil, amassing 76,815 votes against the latter's 76,118.

While the above-mentioned constituencies were the most closely fought of the 2018 elections, there were several others in which candidates won by a landslide.

5 biggest wins:

1. Constituency: Pulakeshinagar | Candidate: R Akhanda Srinivasamurthy; Party: Congress

Srinivasamurthy garnered 97,574 votes in the 2018 elections from the Pulakeshinagar constituency, defeating the JD(S) candidate B Prasannakumar, who had only garnered 15,948 votes.

Despite his impressive victory in 2018, Srinivasamurthy was denied a ticket this time around, thus invoking his ire and consecutively his resgination from the party. He is set to contest the election on a BSP ticket.

2. Constituency: Kanakapura | Candidate: D K Shivakumar; Party: Congress

KPCC chief D K Shivakumar contested from the Kanakapura constituency in 2018 and won by a staggering margin of 79,909 votes.

DKS is contesting the Assembly polls from the same constituency this time around after his comfortable victory.

3. Constituency: Belgaum Dakshin | Candidate: Abhay Patil; Party: Congress

The Congress' Abhay Patil garnered 84,498 votes in the 2018 Assembly elections, defeating the BJP's M D Lakshminarayan by a margin of 58,692 to register his tumping victory.

Patil is known for his development works in his constituency, including moving a bill in the Assembly to establish an IT park in Belgaum.

4. Constituency: Varuna | Winning candidate: Yathindra S; Party: Congress

Garnerning 55.6 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency in 2018, the Congress' Yathindra S defeated the candidate who came second, the BJP's T Basavaraju, with a margin of 58,616 votes,

Yathindra, veteran Congress leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah's son, is a doctor by profession. 2018 was the first time he contested an election.

5. Constituency: Kundapur | Winning candidate: Halady Srinivas Shetty; Party: BJP

A five-time MLA (four times as a BJP candidate and once as an independent), Shetty is popularly known as 'Kundanpura's Vajpayee'.

Despiye resigning from the BJP in 2012, Shetty rejoined the party and fought the 2018 elections, in which he brushed aside all competition and won with a margin of 56,405 votes.

The candidate who came second, Congress' Rakesh Malli did not even manage to garner as many votes (47,029) as the margin between the two.

(All electoral data sourced from Indiavotes)