The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) dominated the Vokkaliga-significant regions of Karnataka, including the old Mysore region, as per data available on the election commission of India (ECI).
The BJP, along with the JD(S), won in 17 seats in Karnataka and Congress, on the other hand, won in a total of nine seats. For Congress, this a big turnaround as it had only won one seat in 2019.
Hassan, Tumkur, Mysore, Mandya, Chikkballapur are some of the Vokkaliga-dominant regions in Karnataka.
In Tumkur, BJP's V Somanna beat Congress' SP Muddahanumegowda by over 1.75 lakh votes. Even in Mysore, BJP's Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar beat Congress' M Lakshmana by nearly 1.4 lakh votes.
In Mandya, JD(S), an ally of the BJP, contestant HD Kumaraswamy, former chief minister of Karnataka, beat Congress' Venkataramane Gowda by over 2.8 lakh votes to secure his seat.
However, in Hassan, Congress' Shreyas M Patel beat JD(S)' Prajwal Revanna by over 42,000 votes.
The BJP, along with the JD(S), won in 19 seats in Karnataka and Congress, on the other hand, won in a total of nine seats. For Congress, this a big turnaround as it had only won one seat in 2019.
Congress is the ruling party in Karnataka and in the Lok Sabha elections, it was hoping to repeat the success it tasted in the assembly elections in 2023.
This is also a setback for DK Shivakumar, a key leader of the party and also the deputy chief minister of the state, who is a Vokkaliga and is becoming a popular name among his community members.
It reduces the chances of DK Shivakumar wanting to position himself as a more important leader of the Congress. Even his brother, DK Suresh lost to BJP's Dr. Manjunath, which further diminished the deputy CM's hopes.
In the old Mysore region, the Vokkaligas comprise almost 50 percent of the electorate, a majority of whom are farmers. Along with the increasing popularity of D.K. Shivakumar, the Congress was also hoping to bank on the guarantees it implemented last year during the assembly elections last year and hope for its vote share to increase in the region.
It promised free bus rides for women, waived off electricity bills for consumption up to 200 units, aid of Rs 2,000 each to the women heads of families, among others, which likely wooed voters, especially women, giving the Congress an edge over its peers.
In Karnataka, while the battle during the assembly polls was a three-way fierce competition between the JD(S), BJP and Congress, the dynamics changed as time passed. JD(S) decided to partner with the BJP in the state and that resulted in making it a two-party race between just the national parties.
The timing of the elections in Karnataka, which voted in two phases, is also interesting. While the south belt voted in April, north Karnataka voted in May. By then, the BJP and JD(S) alliance appeared to have faced a jolt.
Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of former prime minister H.D. Devegowda, was named as an accuse in an alleged sexual abuse case, which likely weighed on the results as NDA lost some seats compared to five years ago.
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