BJP’s Shobha Karandlaje defeated her arch rival Pramod Madhwaraj of the JD(S)–Congress and won the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat by a massive margin of 3,49,599 votes.
Karandlaje secured 7,18,916 votes, while Madhwaraj got 3,69,317 votes in the constituency. Karandlaje maintained a healthy lead from Round 1 and by the end of Round 21 she had recorded a lead of 3,48,550 votes against the former district in-charge minister.
Addressing reporters later, she thanked the party workers who relentlessly toiled to ensure her victory with a huge margin. “The victory was also possible due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-people governance,” she added.
“I have no aspiration to be made a Union minister, but will readily accept any responsibility entrusted on me by Modi and Amit Shah. Their decision will be final,” she stressed.
“Strengthening and mobilising the party from the grassroots level is my priority,” said the MP and promised to implement all programme introduced by the Modi government in her constituency.
She also expressed sympathy for Madhwaraj for taking a wrong decision to contest under the JD(S) party symbol.
Karandlaje will be attending the victory celebrations in both Udupi and Chikkamagaluru districts.
“The constituency saw around 70,000 first time voters this time. Support from young voters seemed to be a key reason behind Karandlaje’s success,” BJP leader Kuthyar Naveen Shetty declared.
“Those at the lower end of the social fabric appear to have remained disinterested in the absence of a Congress candidate as Madhwaraj was from the JD(S),” he added.
KPCC secretary M A Gafoor agreed that a Congress candidate would have increased the prospects of a Congress victory. “The defeat was due to the decision to hand the seat to the JD(S). The party high command, however, did not listen to us,” he rued.
Madhwaraj secured 35,779 votes in Kundapur; 57,246 votes in Udupi; 46,430 in Kaup; and 38,895 in Karkala.
Karandlaje got 1,12,975 votes in Kundapur; 1,01,507 in Udupi; 91,097 in Kaup and 97,442 votes in Karkala.
In Sringeri, Madhwaraj got 47,159 votes and Karandlaje to 76,129. In Mudigere, Madhwaraj got 43,800 and Karandlaje got 70,512. In Chikkamagaluru, Karandlaje got 87,635 and Madhwaraj got 54,490. In Tarikere, Karandlaje got 8,01,185 votes while Madhwaraj got 45,133 votes.
Karandlaje scored 1,434 postal ballots and Madhwaraj got 385 votes. As many as 661 postal votes were rejected.
A total of 7,502 NOTA votes votes were filed in the constituency.