Former Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy wins Mandya by over 2.8 lakh votes

HD Kumaraswamy

Former chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy won the Mandya constituency in Karnataka, against Congress' Venkataramane Gowda (also known as Star Chandru).

Kumaraswamy won by a margin of over 2.84 lakh votes, polling more than 8.51 lakh votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. His closest rival, Gowda, garnered 5.67 lakh votes.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 9 out of the 11 constituencies in the Old Mysuru region. The Vokkaliga community makes up over 50 percent of the nearly 18-lakh-strong electorate in Mandya, who have traditionally switched their support between the JD(S) and the Congress.

The victory of the NDA candidate is of significant importance as it was considered the weakest link in the state. The Congress has emerged victorious in the Mandya Lok Sabha seat 13 times since the first parliamentary elections.

In 2019, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh won the Mandya seat. She recently joined the BJP and, since the party entered into a seat-sharing pact with the JD(S) this time, Ambareesh decided not to contest the election.

Her absence from the fray created a direct contest between Kumaraswamy and Gowda.

The Mandya constituency comprises eight Assembly segments and the BJP has never been able to win this seat.

In the 2024 Karnataka Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured 17 seats, and its ally JD(S) won 2 seats, while Congress claimed 9 out of the 28 total seats. This marks a decline for the BJP, which had dominated the 2019 elections by winning 25 seats, along with one additional seat won by an independent candidate with BJP's support.

According to the News18 Mega Exit Poll 2024, the BJP-Janata Dal (Secular) combine was projected to win about 23-26 seats out of the 28 constituencies in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, while the Congress was likely to win 3-7 seats.