The Congress has achieved a remarkable comeback in Karnataka, securing the highest number of seats and vote share in 34 years. Out of 224 seats, Congress has won 135 seats, leaving the BJP with only 66 seats and JD(S) with 19 seats. Late Saturday evening, Basavaraj Bommai, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, submitted his resignation to Governor Thawarchand Gehlot.
In Jayanagar constituency in Bengaluru, a recount was demanded by BJP after the Election Commission had declared Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy as the winner. After hours of drama leading to multiple vote recounts, BJP candidate CK Ramamurthy emerged as the winner by a narrow margin of 16 votes. The Congress alleged interference and high-handedness by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya and BJP leader R Ashok.
Both Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar emerged victorious from their constituencies of Varuna and Kanakapura. DK Shivakumar won with the highest margin of 1,22,392 votes. In Bengaluru, the BJP won 16 out of 28 seats, while the Congress won 12 seats. With the exception of JD(S) MLA R Manjunath in Dasarahalli, Sowmya Reddy in Jayanagar and Akhanda Srinivas Murthy in Pulakeshinagar, all the sitting MLAs retained their seats. Manjunath lost to Muniraju of BJP, while Akhanda Srinivas Murthy –denied a ticket from Congress and contested from BJP – lost to AC Srinivasa of Congress. Priya Krishna of Congress, who had lost to Somanna in 2018 in Govindrajnagar, won the elections this time, defeating Umesh Shetty of BJP with a margin of 12,516 votes.
Shock defeats in BJP included K Sudhakar from Chikkaballapur, BC Nagesh from Tiptur, CT Ravi from Chikkamagalur and V Somanna from both Varuna and Chamarajanagar. Anand Singh’s son Siddharth who was contesting from Vijayanagara in the newly carved out district, lost to HR Gaviappa of Congress. While Sreeramulu lost to B Nagendra in Ballari, JC Madhuswamy lost to CB Suresh Babu of JD(S).
Laxman Savadi, who joined Congress as he was disgruntled with BJP giving the ticket to Mahesh Kumthalli in Athani, managed a resounding win with a huge margin of 76,122 votes. Jagadish Shettar, who also joined Congress after being asked to step down by the BJP, could not win against BJP candidate Mahesh Tenginkai and lost with a margin of 34,289 votes.
The JD(S) had a poor showing, managing to win only 19 seats. Party chief HD Kumaraswamy’s son, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, faced a humiliating defeat in the party stronghold Ramanagara losing to HA Iqbal Hussain of the Congress. While HP Swaroop defeated BJP’s Preetham Gowda in Hassan, HD Revanna managed to defeat Shreyas Patel of Congress with a narrow margin of 3,152 votes.
Darshan Puttanaiah of Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha beat sitting MLA CS Puttaraju of JD(S) by 10,862 votes. The Congress was supporting Darshan in Melukote, and they did not put up a candidate.
Mining baron G Janardhana Reddy who debuted his new party, Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha and contested from Gangavathi also won. His wife, Aruna, who contested from Ballari, lost to Congress candidate Nara Bharat Reddy.
The elections also saw two independents making the cut. Latha Mallikarjun, daughter of Janata Parivar leader, late MP Prakash, decided to contest as an independent from Harapanahalli after she was denied a ticket from Congress. She beat her closest rival, one of the Reddy brothers, Karunakara, with a margin of 13,349 votes. KH Puttaswamy Gowda, an independent candidate, defeated his closest opponent NH Shivashankara Reddy (46,551) of Congress, securing 83,837 votes.