Mangaluru: The Lok Sabha constituencies on the coastal belt of Karnataka have by and large voted the BJP to power.
Dakshina Kannada BJP candidate Nalin Kumar Kateel had an easy victory over Congress candidate and first-timer Mithun Rai in the Lok Sabha poll results, on May 23.
Kateel, who was elected to the Parliament from the constituency in 2009 for the first time, went on to get elected for second term in 2014 LS election and he is now riding high on success, all set to represent the constituency for the third term.
Though he is considered to be an MP with a good percentage of attendance in the Parliament and interactions, many opined that there was high anti-incumbency in the constituency owing to his poor performance and also opposition from party workers. It may be recalled that the locals had condemned Kateel for the delay in Pumpwell flyover project.
However, proving all of these speculations wrong, Kateel managed to bagged 7,74,285, while Mithun Rai bagged 4,99,664 votes.
UDUPI-CHIKkAMAGALUR
If anti-incumbency factor was spoken about openly and widely, then it was in Udupi-Chikamagaluru constituency. BJP’s Shobha Karandalaje had irked the voters due to her inaccessibility, said many before the elections. However, the results have shown that Karandalaje had a smooth walk to victory, defeating JDS candidate and former MLA Pramodh Madhwaraj.
Shobha bagged 7,18,916, while Madhwaraj bagged 3,69,317.
KARWAR
Meanwhile, in Uttara Kannada district, it was a mere cakewalk for Union Minister Ananth Kumar Hegade. Taking on JDS candidate Anand Asnotikar, Hegade walked away with 7,86,042 votes. Asnotikar bagged 3,06,393 votes.
Hegade had been in news due to one or the other controversial statements from time to time. Ranging from changing the Constitution remark to questioning the birth of Rahul Gandhi, the Minister had been in news for wrong reasons. However, all of these negative news barely had any impact on the vote share.
Political pundits say that Asnotikar was never a strong candidate to take on a political heavyweight like Hegade.
Cong pulls down Communist fort in Kasargod, wins after three decades
KASARGOD
While the Congress has suffered a massive defeat across the country, here in Kasargod, the grand old party of India managed to snatch away the constituency from the CPM after three long decades. It was in 1984 that that the Congress last won in Kasargod. After 1989, only the Communists have been winning over the constituency.
Congress candidate Rajmohan Unnithan, who is a first-timer trounced CPM candidate KPK Sathishchandra with a margin of 40,438 votes. The CPM candidate managed to get lead over the Congress candidate only during the initial rounds. However, by the end of the counting, Rajmohan bagged 4,74,961 votes, while Sathishchandra bagged 4,34,523 votes. BJP candidate Ravish Tantri got 1,76,049 votes.
The polling was held on April 23 and the district witnessed 80.57 per cent turn out.
