In Tumkuru, BJP’s V Somanna wins against Congress’ S P Muddahanume Gowda with a margin of 1.75 lakh votes

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BJP's V Somanna has won Tumkuru Lok Sabha constituency with a handsome margin of 1.75 lakh votes against Congress candidate Muddahanume Gowda.

Somanna has garnered 7.2 lakh votes while Gowda has secured only 5.45 lakh votes.

The constituency to the north west of the state capital Bengaluru has strong Vokkaliga and Lingayat votes, the two most dominant communities in state politics.

BJP had an upper hand since its alliance partner Janata Dal (Secular), which counts Vokkaliga as its primary base, has an equal vote share in the district.

Contrary to exit poll predictions, BJP has not been able to sweep the state with Congress leading or winning in 9 seats in Karnataka. BJP has won 17 seats while its JD (S) has got 2 seats.

Gowda had previously won from Tumkuru seat in the 2014 general elections.

Tumkuru is home to the famous Lingayat institution of Shree Siddaganga Mutt, which has been visited by PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Rahul Gandhi among others over the last few years.

While the Congress candidate is a local, BJP’s Somanna’s political career was mostly in Bengaluru and is considered an outsider. Somanna was the minister for housing and infrastructure in the previous BJP government under Basavaraj Bommai.

Congress was hoping that JD (S) will not be successful in transferring all the Vokkaliga votes to BJP. Some of the local Muslim leaders of JD (S) crossed over to Congress after the party aligned with BJP.

Of the eight assembly constituencies coming under the Lok Sabha seat, four are with Congress while BJP and JD (S) have two members each.

However, Karnataka tends to vote for BJP in the general elections irrespective of who they voted for in the previous assembly elections.

In 2019 general election, the constituency saw former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda lose to BJP’s GS Basavaraj.

In the 2019 elections, BJP had swept the state winning 25 seats out of 28. The party had polled 52 percent vote share in the state.

In the 2014 general elections BJP won 17 seats in the state, Congress 9 and JD (S) won 2 seats. BJP’s victories came mostly in the north and the coastal regions.