BJP wrests Bengaluru Central LS seat, Cong tally comes down to 9 in Karnataka

Bengaluru : The Karnataka Congress’ joy over reaching double digits in the Lok Sabha election was short-lived as the BJP looked set to retain the Bengaluru Central seat. Following the development, the Congress party’s tally came down to nine and the BJP's tally improved from 16 to 17 in the state in this election.

PC Mohan, the BJP candidate secured a lead of 6,434 votes over the Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan. However, sources confirmed the victory of Mohan over Khan by over 40,000 votes.

However, the official announcement by the Election Commission is yet to be made in this regard. Mohan will be representing the seat for the fourth time for the BJP. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, he stated that there was a delay in uploading information with the ECI regarding his leads and victory on the website.

“I was expecting to win by a margin of 20,000 more votes. I thank my leaders on this occasion. I have represented the seat for 15 years and brought more funds for development,” he stated.

The Congress is leading on the Chikkodi, Koppal, Chamarajanagar, Bellary, Hassan, Bidar, Kalaburagi, Raichur, and Davanagere seats.

Sources said the party has won Chikkodi (Priyanka Jarkiholi), Koppal (K. Rajashekar Basavaraj Hitnal), Chamarajanagar (Sunil Bose), Bellary (E. Tukaram), Hassan (Shreyas M Patel) seats but the official declaration was pending.

The BJP is leading in Bijapur, Bagalkot, Belagavi, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Haveri, Shivamogga, Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, Dakshina Kannada, Mysuru- Kodagu, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru, Bengaluru North, Bengaluru South and Chitradurga seats.

The counting at Shivamogga (BY Raghavendra), Bagalkot (PC Gaddigoudar), Belagavi (former CM Jagadish Shettar), Dharwad (Union Minister Pralhad Joshi), Tumakuru (V Somanna) is complete but an official statement is yet to be made.

The BJP, which got 25 seats in 2019, is struggling to reach 20 this time even after allying with the JD(S). However, the Congress, which was hopeful of bagging 15 to 18 seats, was leading in nine seats.

The JD(S) has won the Kolar (Mallesh Babu) and Mandya (former CM HD Kumaraswamy) seats.