Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, May 15: Congress which had a stronghold in the twin coastal districts of coastal Karnataka for the past five years was decimated, with BJP winning seven out of eight seats in Dakshina Kannada and all five seats in Udupi.
In Dakshina Kannada, the BJP won all the seats, with only Congress candidate U T Khader holding on to his Ullal constituency by almost 20,000 votes.
J R Lobo who had won the 2013 elections by over 12,000 votes suffered a defeat by over 15,000 votes at the hands of debutant BJP candidate Vedavyas Kamath.
Soon after the victory, BJP candidate Vedavyas Kamath thanked the people of Mangaluru South constituecny."They showed their faith in me and I am dedicating this victory to them. This is their victory. I have many development plans for the city of Mangaluru and in the coming days I will work on it. We had released a special manifesto for Mangaluru and we will work on it," he said.
In Mangaluru North, Mohiuddin Bava lost to Bharath Shetty, who was seen as weak candidate. Bava garnered 57,551 votes against Bharath Shetty's 86,544.
Bantwal which was considered a stronghold of the Congress, with Ramanath Rai being MLA for the past 6 terms, saw BJP register a massive win, with Rajesh Naik amassing 87,444 votes.
Beltangady and Moodbidri too went to BJP, where Congress lost by huge margins of over 20,000 votes again.
BJP has been fighting hard to regain its foothold in the Mangaluru South constituency. In 2013, Congress managed to break Yogish Bhat’s 20-year winning streak by fielding J R Lobo as its candidate. Lobo won with a margin of over 12,000 votes causing major embarrassment to BJP which later pointed to internal conflicts as reason for defeat.
The BJP has managed to win 7 seats out of 8 in Dakshina Kannada. BJP's Bharath Shetty won from Mangaluru North, Umanath Kotian from Moodbdri constituency, S Angara from Sullia, Rajesh Naik from Bantwal and Sanjeev Matandoor from Puttur who defeated Shakuntala Shetty.
Speaking to daijiworld, Sanjeev Matandoor said, "This is BJP workers’ victory. With the aim of bringing BJP in power, they worked day and night. So this is their time to rejoice. They received a positive result for their commitment and dedication.
"Modi factor also worked behind my victory and all other BJP constituencies. People accepted his vision and mission of development. Hindutva also played its own role in the victories of BJP candidates.
"People showed their anger against Siddaramaiah in this election. The killing of Hindu activists made them think twice and they decided that Congress is an anti-Hindu party. Hence, we won this election with a big margin," he said.
Accepting defeat Congress’ Shakuntala Shetty said, "I never expected this defeat. I cannot understand how people forgot the developmental works of the Congress government. Now I am in confusion thinking whether people want development or Hindutva or any other thing. Nevertheless, I accept the result. But the margin of defeat paves way to think about manipulation in EVM," he said.
As soon as results were clear, the BJP camp broke out in celebrations. Though victory parades have been banned by the EC on the day of the counting, the party workers and supporters celebrated by distributing sweets and rejoiced chanting slogans hailing the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.