My son lost as BJP-MES came together: Laxmi Hebbalkar

Bengaluru: Women & Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar on Monday claimed that votes of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) went to the BJP, resulting in her son Mrinal Hebbalkar’s defeat in the Belgaum Lok Sabha segment.

Laxmi said this after a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.

Her son Mrinal lost to BJP’s Jagadish Shettar by a margin of 1.78 lakh votes.

“It used to be a triangular fight in Belagavi. This time, it looks like the BJP and the MES came together,” Laxmi added.

The minister explained her theory using numbers. “In my Assembly election at Belgaum Rural, the MES got 45,000 votes. In the Belgaum Lok Sabha bypoll, when Satish Jarkiholi got 4 lakh votes, the MES got 1.30 lakh votes. This time, the MES candidate got only 9,000 votes,” she said.

Laxmi also defended herself over the BJP getting a lead in her Belgaum Rural Assembly segment.

“In 2018, I won by a margin of 52,000 votes. In the Lok Sabha polls that were held a year after, Suresh Angadi got a lead of 79,000 votes in my segment. In 2023, I won by 59,000 votes. So, voters’ mindset is different for different polls,” she said.