Karnataka Elections 2023: As Congress emerges as winner, here is list top winners and losers

The Indian National Congress (INC) scripted an empathetic victory in Karnataka assembly polls as trends showed the grand old party leading in over 130 seats. The ruling BJP fared poorly in the contest, with many of its senior leaders and cabinet ministers having to bite dust in the polls. Congress workers burst crackers, distributed sweets and danced to the beat of drums.

 

 

The results of the polls have been a source of disappointment for several prominent politicians, while others emerged victorious. Below is a list of the top winners and losers of the assembly elections.

 

BJP turncoat and Lingayat leader Jagadish Shettar had expressed confidence of victory by 'huge margin'. However, he was defeated by the BJP's Mahesh Tenginakai by margin of over 32,000 votes in Hubballi Dharwad central constituency.

 

Prior to the 2023 Karnataka Assembly Election, Shettar, a prominent Lingayat leader and former Chief Minister of Karnataka, resigned from the saffron party and joined the Congress after being denied a ticket from the seat. On Wednesday, May 10, when the polls were conducted for the 224 assembly constituencies in Karnataka, Shettar expressed his confidence in winning the election with a "significant margin".

In the Chikkaballapura Assembly constituency, the Congress' Pradeep Eshwar Ayyar emerged victorious against the BJP's Dr. K Sudhakar. Ayyar, a new entrant, contested against the incumbent Health Minister Dr. Sudhakar.

 

During the 2018 Assembly elections, Sudhakar ran on a Congress ticket and emerged victorious. However, he resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP, playing a crucial role in forming the BJP government in 2019. The Congress, by defeating Sudhakar, has avenged for the 2019 coup led by him.

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's family experienced an unexpected turn of events as his grandson and Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy suffered a defeat in the Ramnagar constituency, losing to Congress candidate HA Iqbal Hussain.

 

Hussain secured 72,898 votes, while Kumaraswamy garnered 61,692 votes. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Gautham Gowda received only 10,870 votes. Notably, this marks the second defeat for Kumaraswamy's family, as his mother Anita Kumaraswamy had previously represented the seat.

In a major setback to the BJP, V Somanna, the outgoing BJP minister and senior leader, was defeated in both the Chamarajanagar and Varuna constituencies during the Karnataka Assembly elections. Although the official results had not yet been announced, Somanna lost to former CM Siddaramaiah of the Congress in Varuna and Congress candidate C Puttarangashetty in Chamarajanagar, TV9 Kannada reported. Somanna was previously the housing and infrastructure development minister in the outgoing government of Basavaraj Bommai.

BJP's national general secretary and Tamil Nadu in-charge CT Ravi lost from Chikmagalur to Congress candidate HD Thammaiah. Congress swept Chikmagalur by winning all 5 assembly seats in the district.

Another BJP cabinet minister, Minister of Revenue R Ashoka, who was fielded against KPCC President DK Shivakumar in Kanakapura, had to face humiliating defeat. Ashoka lost to Shivakumar by a whopping margin of 1,20,00 votes, thereby losing his deposit in the contest as well. Ashoka could not even end up as runner up and ranked third in the contest. While DK Shivakumar garnered 1,42,156 votes, JD(S) candidate B Nagaraju polled 20,561 votes. R Ashoka managed to get only 19,602 votes.