Badami: votes polled by JD(S) helped CM scrape through

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah may have broken away from the JD(S) to find his future in the Congress.

But it was the votes that JD(S) took, which may otherwise have gone to B Sriramulu (BJP), which helped him win by a slender margin of 1,757 votes. It is said that JD(S) candidate Hanumantha Mavinamarada, a Panchamasali Lingayat and a local, ate into the votes of the community, which would have otherwise gone to the BJP. Mavinamarada managed to get over 20,000 votes.

The Congress managed to consolidate the votes of the Kurubas and Muslims. The party’s Muslim leaders C M Ibrahim and Zameer Ahmed Khan helped tap into the Muslim votes. The BJP campaigned hard in the rural parts of the BJP, but the Congress rallied urban voters behind it.

During counting, there was a tough fight between the Congress and the JD(S) up to the fourth round. But Siddaramaiah managed to grab the lead in the sixth round.