Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
With PTI Inputs
Bangalore, May 16: In a remarkable comeback since it lost power in the Karnataka Assembly polls last year, the BJP today bagged 17 Lok Sabha seats out of 28, while Congress could manage only 9.
The JD(S) won two seats - in Hassan where former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda raced ahead with a victory margin of over one lac votes; and in Mandya, where C S Puttaraju defeated actress-politician Ramya of Congress.
BJP's Nalin Kumar Kateel trounced former KPCC chief B Janardhana Poojary by 1,43,709 votes in Dakshina Kannada constituency. BJP's Anantkumar Hegde and B Sreeramulu won the Uttara Kannada and Bellary seats, respectively.
Sriramulu, once a close aide of mining baron B Janardhana Reddy, won from Bellary. He had joined the BJP ahead of elections leaving behind the BSR Congress which he had founded after deserting the saffron party two years before.
In the keenly watched bitter contest in Bangalore South, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani lost to BJP's Ananth Kumar, by over two lac votes.
"I concede defeat and congratulate Ananth Kumar for his performance in this poll," Nilekani, the face of UPA's flagship Aadhar programme said, even as the counting was underway.
BJP established its foothold in two other constituencies in Bangalore -- North and Central. Former chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda won handsomely, garnering 7,18,326 votes in Bangalore North, while in Bangalore Central, P C Mohan secured victory with a margin of over 1.2 lac votes.
Union Minister M Veerappa Moily, who was trailing in the initial rounds, made some recovery and was leading by 7,626 votes in Chikkaballapur.
In Gulbarga, railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge won 5,07193 votes, with BJP's Revunaik Belamagi coming second with 4,32,460 votes.
Veerappa Moily managed to hold on to his Chikkaballapur seat, by defeating BJP's Bache Gowda by a margin of under 9,520 votes.
Journalist-turned politician Pratap Simha won the Mysore seat for BJP, garnering over 5 lac votes.
BJP strongman and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa was unstoppable as he won by a whooping margin of over 3,62,000 votes in his bastion of Shimoga against Congress' Manjunath Bhandary.
The results are heartwarming for the BJP which was downcast after it suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2013 May Assembly polls, when it lost its first ever party government in the South.
Aam Aadmi Party failed to open its account in the state.