Since the beginning of the vote counting, on Friday (16 May), Karnataka BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) continues to lead the table.
As per the latest news, the high-profile Congress candidate Nandan Nilekani (former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India and Infosys co-founder) has suffered a humiliating defeat against the BJP veteran leader Ananth Kumar. The former lost by a staggering margin of 2,28,575 votes in the Bangalore South constituency.
In Bangalore Central region, Nelikani's former colleague and ex-CEO of Infosys, V. Balakrishnan representing Aam Admi Party is also facing similar fate, trailing by more than 3 lakh votes against the BJP leader P.C Mohan, who is closely followed by Rizwan Arshad of Indian National Congress.
Another high-profile Congress candidate, Ramya (movie star), who won the last by-poll election six months ago is trailing against the Janata Dal (Secular) nominee C.S Puttaraju.
So far, BJP candidates B. S Yeddyurappa and D.V Sadananda Gowda have secured the majority mandate in their respective Shimoga and Bangalore North seats, whereas, Nalin Kumar Kateel, Anantkumar Hegde and Shobha Karandlaje have won the Dakshin Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seats. Angadi Suresh Channabasappa and G P Chandanagouda have won the Belgaum and Bagalkot constituencies. B. Sreeramulu who came back to the BJP's fold has secured the mining district, Bellary winning by a huge margin of 85,000 plus votes.
Prahald Joshi, BJP Karnataka president too has won his home constituency Dharwad, beating Congress candidate Vinay Kulkarni by 1,11,000 plus vote margin.
For Congress, veteran leaders Mallikarajun Kharge, B.V Nayak, V Chandrappa have won Gulbarga, Raichur and Chitradurga respectively. Whereas, Muddahanumegowda S.P secured a seat in Tumkur.
Regional party Janata Dal (Secular) has so far secured one seat in Hassan by the party supremo, HD Devegowda, while is son H.D Kumara Swamy is trailing at a distant third position in Chikkballapur with BJP nominee Bache Gowda and former Union Petroleum minister, Veerappa Moily are fighting out a two way battle.
