Tejasvi Surya wins Bengaluru South, BJP sweeps all Bengaluru seats

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won all three constituencies in Bengaluru city. It has retained Bengaluru North seat since 2004 and Bengaluru South since 1991. It has held Bengaluru Central since it was formed after the 2008 delimitation. 

The BJP swept the Lok Sabha election in Karnataka, winning 17 seats including the four in Bengaluru, but its tally was much lower than the 25 seats it won in 2019. This number was also much lower than most exit polls which predicted that the party would win over 20 seats. 

Tejasvi Surya, a Brahmin, defeated Sowmya Reddy, a Reddy, of the Congress to win his second stint in Parliament from Bengaluru South. He won with a large margin of 2,77,083 votes. Tejasvi got 7,50,830 or 60% of the total 12,49,342 votes in the constituency while Sowmya got 4,73,747 or 37% of the votes.

Read: Tejasvi Surya vs Sowmya: Caste, class and counterculture in Bengaluru South 

In the previous LS elections in 2019, Tejasvi defeated BK Hariprasad of the Congress by a margin of 3,31,192 votes. The Congress has only won the seat twice since 1951. While the BJP has held the seat for eight terms, the Janata Party won the seat thrice. 

Tejasvi and Sowmya campaigned furiously in the run-up to the election on April 26. Allegations and counter-allegations flew thick and fast, especially over Rs 4 crore cash seized from the Jayanagar locality in the constituency. Tejasvi was also booked by the police for seeking votes in the name of religion.

Both parties roped in the big guns for their campaigns. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a public meeting in Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai, who lost the Coimbatore seat, had campaigned for Tejasvi. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and party state president DK Shivakumar both held road shows and sought votes for Sowmya.

Tejasvi’s largely well-orchestrated campaign — meeting morning joggers in parks, roads shows, rallies, meetings in apartments, and a rash of media interviews — was marred by protests from people who lost money in the Guru Raghavendra Bank scam. Tejasvi and his uncle MLA Ravi Subramanya were heckled by bank depositors for allegedly failing to keep their promise of discussing the bank’s revival.

Sowmya’s campaign was somewhat different from Tejasvi’s. Although she too visited temples and mutts, she was also seen with large groups of women and working class folk. 

Convincing win 

Shobha Karandlaje, a Vokkaliga who was shifted from the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru seat, was announced as the BJP’s candidate from Bengaluru North. Despite talk of her being an outsider, Shobha polled 9,86,049 votes, which was 2,59,476 more than Rajeev’s tally of 7,26,573. Shobha polled 56% while Rajeev secured 42% of the total 17,52,504 votes polled.

Read: Political battles and opportunism: The trajectory of Shobha Karandlaje 

Incumbent Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan defeated Mansoor Ali Khan of the Congress by a small margin of 33,707 votes. PC Mohan got 50% or 6,58,915 of the total 13,16,510 votes while Mansoor got 47% or 6,26,208 of the vote. Although Mansoor maintained a lead through most of the counting, PC Mohan began celebrating early and even claimed victory on social media posts. He was later declared the winner on the ECI website.  

Dr CN Manjunath, the son-in-law of HD Deve Gowda who contested the Bengaluru Rural seat on a BJP ticket, defeated the Congress’ DK Suresh, brother of Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, with a wide margin of 2,69,647 votes. He won 10,79,002 or 56% of the total votes while DK Suresh, who was seeking his second term from the seat, secured 8,09,355 or 42% of the 19,19,540 total votes.

Congress ups tally

The Congress has won nine seats, which was far greater than the lone seat it won in the 2019 elections. The party’s performance in the Lok Sabha has not touched the double-digit figure in three decades. Along with DK Shivakumar, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also faced a defeat in his home district Mysuru, where his candidate Lakshman suffered a defeat to BJP candidate, Yaduveer Wadiyar. The BJP’s alliance partner JD(S) won two of the three seats it contested. While HD Kumaraswamy cruised to a comfortable victory in Mandya with a margin of 2.84 lakh votes, Mallesh Babu defeated KV Gowtham of Congress with a margin of 71,388 votes. Ironically, it lost the Hassan seat which was the only seat it had won in 2019.

Read: Rape accused Prajwal Revanna loses in Hassan

BJP winners:

1. Belagavi - Jagdish Shettar

2. Bagalkot - PC Gaddigoudar 

3. Bijapur - Ramesh Jigajinagi

4. Haveri - Basavaraj Bommai

5. Dharwad - Pralhad Joshi

6. Uttara Kannada - Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri

7. Shivamogga - BY Raghavendra

8. Udupi-Chikkamagalur - Kota Srinivas Poojary

9. Dakshina Kannada - Capt Brijesh Chowta

10. Chitradurga - Govind Karjol

11. Tumakuru - V Somanna

12. Mysuru - Yaduveer Krishnadatta Wadiyar

13. Bengaluru Rural - Dr CN Manjunath

14. Bengaluru North - Shobha Karandlaje 

15. Bengaluru Central - PC Mohan

16. Bengaluru South - Tejasvi Surya

17. Chikkaballapur - K Sudhakar

Congress winners:

1. Chikkodi - Priyanka Jarkiholi

2. Kalaburagi - Radhakrishna 

3. Raichur - G Kumar Naik

4. Bidar - Sagar Khandre

5. Koppal - K Rajashekar Basavaraj Hitnal

6. Bellary - E Tukaram

7. Davangere - Prabha Mallikarjun

8. Hassan - Shreyas Patel

9. Chamarajanagara - Sunil Bose

JD(S) winners:

1. Mandya - HD Kumaraswamy

2. Kolar - Mallesh Babu