Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar with his D K Suresh.
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: Two Assembly constituencies -- Kanakapura and Ramanagara -- came to the rescue of Congress’ DK Suresh by giving him leads, but that was not enough to face the massive impact the BJP-JD(S) alliance had at Bangalore Rural, according to data.
Suresh, the brother of Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, lost by a whopping 2.69 lakh votes against BJP’s Dr CN Manjunath, a noted cardiologist who is also JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda’s son-in-law.
The Bangalore Rural result sent shockwaves across Congress as neither Shivakumar nor Suresh saw it coming. And, polling numbers tell the story of how BJP and JD(S) together breached the brothers’ fortress.
In Kanakapura, where Shivakumar is the MLA, the Congress got a lead of just 25,677 votes. This, according to Shivakumar himself, should have been 50,000-70,000. In the Assembly polls last year, Shivakumar had won Kanakapura by a record margin of 1.22 lakh votes.
In Ramanagara, it is a Congress MLA Iqbal Hussain, a Shivakumar loyalist. Here, Suresh got a lead of only 145 votes. The BJP gained leads in Anekal, Magadi and Kunigal despite having Congress MLAs. Dr Manjunath led in Channapatna, represented by his brother-in-law and JD(S) state president HD Kumaraswamy.
Two segments that propelled Dr Manjunath’s lead were BJP-held Raja Rajeshwarinagar and Bangalore South. Together, these segments gave Dr Manjunath a lead of 1.96 lakh votes. Shivakumar himself had focussed on these Bengaluru constituencies as his brother was seen as lacking urban appeal.
Vote transfer
In the Assembly polls last year, the Congress had polled 8.12 lakh votes in the eight constituencies that come under Bangalore Rural. This time, Congress got 8.07 lakh votes, more or less holding on to its base.
Last year, the BJP got 6.09 lakh votes across the eight Assemblies. The JD(S) had 3.62 lakh votes. In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP got 10.7 lakh votes. Presumably, the JD(S) successfully transferred all its votes to the BJP.
Home Minister G Parameshwara confirmed that the BJP-JD(S) alliance worked, especially in the Old Mysuru region. “Our calculation was that the alliance wouldn’t work just as it didn’t during the Congress-JD(S) coalition in 2019. But it worked big time,” he said.
Parameshwara also said Congress could have, with some more effort, won three seats -- Haveri, Chitradurga and Bangalore Central -- where the victory margin for BJP was less than 50,000 votes.
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