Cong recaptures Mysore, JD(S) comes second

Saffron party faces humiliating defeat; people reject three-time legislator S A Ramdas in Krishnaraja

Belying exit polls in some segments and going by predictions at some, Mysore district has re-emerged as a Congress forte, with the party winning seven of the 10 Assembly constituencies.

The ruling BJP drew a blank, losing only two seats it had, while JD(S) has improved its performance by increasing the tally from one to three. Elections to Periyapatna constituency is scheduled to be held on May 28 against the previous schedule of May 5, owing to the death of BJP candidate Sannamogge Gowda.

When the results of the recently concluded elections were announced on Wednesday, belying speculations, opposition leader and Congress candidate in Varuna Siddaramaiah scored a resounding victory against his rival KJP’s Ka Pu Siddalingaswamy by a huge margin of 29,641 votes. It is his second straight win in Varuna, after shifting from his traditional Chamundeshwari constituency in the year 2008. Siddaramaiah garnered 84,385 votes against Ka Pu Siddalingaswamy’s 54,744 votes.

In Hunsur, it’s a Congress show again with sitting MLA H P Manjunath retaining the seat, against JD(S) candidate B Kumaraswamy. He has also set a margin record of 40,207 compared to other winning candidates in the district. Manjunath polled 83,930 votes against Kumaraswamy’s 43,723 votes.

Krishnarajanagar that had set the tone for an interesting fight with a staunch supporter of Siddaramaiah Doddaswame Gowda of Congress pitted against sitting JD(S) MLA Sa Ra Mahesh, eventually turned out to be a damp-squib with the latter retaining the seat by a margin of 15,052 votes. Mahesh polled 81,457 voters against Gowda’s 66,405 votes.

Former mayor Vasu has finally made it to the Assembly from Chamaraja, in his third attempt. More than that, he emerged a giant killer trouncing four-time BJP MLA H S Shankarlinge Gowda. Gowda, this time contested on a JD(S) ticket and lost by a margin of 12,915 votes. Vasu got 41,930 votes against Gowda’s 29,015 votes.

S Chikkmadu has made it to the Assembly again after a gap of 12 years. Chikkamadu, who contested as JD(S) candidate from H D Kote wrested the seat from sitting Congress MLA Chikkanna by a margin of 12,000 odd votes. He had previously won the by-elections from Hunsur in 1992, but as a Congress candidate. He had recently completed his term as JD(S) MLC. This time, Chikkamadu garnered 48,483 votes against Chikkanna’s 35,978.

Former Union minister Congress’ V Sreenivasa Prasad, who had won the previous elections from Nanjangud, by a thin margin of 708 votes against BJP’s S Mahadevaiah, has improved his victory margin by 8,951 votes. However, this time he had a close rival in Kalale Keshavamurthy of JD(S). Prasad got 50,784 against Keshavamurthy’s 41,843.

For Tanveer Sait of Congress, the sitting three-time MLA of Narasimharaja, it was a tough fight, which eventually saw him through, but by a thin margin of 8,370 votes against the fledgling Social Democratic Party of India’s (SDPI) K H Abdul Majeed. Sait got 38,037 votes against Ahmed’s 29,667 votes.

JD(S) candidate at Chamundeshwari G T Devegowda has made it to the Assembly again by defeating sitting Congress MLA M Sathyanarayana by a margin of 7,103 votes. Gowda who had earlier won on a JD(S) ticket from Hunsur in 2004 polls, had switched over to BJP ahead of the 2008 elections. He returned to the JD(S) fold in the run up to the polls and has bagged the lost honour.

Devegowda secured 75,864 votes against Sathyanarayana’s68,761 votes. At T Narasipura (SC reserved), Congress’ Dr H C Mahadevappa has scored a hat-trick, defeating his nearest rival M C Sundareshan of JD(S) by a slender margin of 323 votes. Earlier, he had won twice from the same segment.Mahadevappa polled 53,219 votes against Sundareshan’s 52,896 votes.

Surprisingly, the Congress party has also won all the three seats in the city; Krishnaraja, Chamaraja and Narasimharaja. At Krishnaraja, Congress’ M K Somashekar has usurped the seat from his traditional rival and district in-charge minister BJP’s S A Ramdas by a margin of 6,065 votes. Earlier, in 2004, Somashekar a JD(S) nominee had defeated Ramdas, but only to lose to the latter in the subsequent polls. This time, Somashekar got 52,611 votes against Ramdas’ 46,546 votes.