Mysore/Mysuru: BJP candidate Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar is most likely to win the Mysuru-Kodagu Parliamentary Constituency in the vote counting held this morning at Maharani’s College of Commerce and Management in Vinayakanagar (Paduvarahalli).

The official declaration of the results, along with the presentation of the winning certificate to Yaduveer, will be conducted later today by Deputy Commissioner Dr. K.V. Rajendra, who also serves as the District Electoral Officer.

Yaduveer maintained a comfortable lead from the very first round, including in the postal ballot and the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS). He contested against Congress candidate M. Lakshmana. Yaduveer had secured a lead of 1,39,262 votes against Lakshmana by securing 7,71,503 votes as against Lakshmana’s 6,32,241 votes.

The last rounds of counting were in progress when we went to Press.

Interestingly, at 2.40 pm, the number of NOTA (None Of The Above) votes stood at 4,104 far ahead of the candidates who contested as independents.

The Mysuru-Kodagu Constituency comprises eight Assembly segments: Madikeri, Virajpet, Periyapatna, Hunsur, Chamundeshwari, Krishnaraja, Chamaraja, and Narasimharaja. Voter turnout in the 2024 elections was 70.6 percent, an increase from 69.5 percent in the 2019 elections, with a total of 14,77,751 votes cast.

As the clock struck noon, it became evident that Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar would emerge victorious in the elections and soon after, he crossed the one lakh vote margin. 

By 1.06 pm, with just three rounds remaining, Yaduveer was leading by a commanding 1,04,347 votes. At 1:15 pm, with only one lakh votes left to be counted, Yaduveer had secured 6,21,173 votes compared to 5,19,342 votes for Lakshmana, thereby establishing a formidable lead of 1,01,831 votes.

At 1.54 pm, Yaduveer had gained 6,94,211 votes, securing a lead of 1,08,356 votes as against 5,85,855 votes polled by Lakshmana.

As the first trend emerged at 9.51 am, Yaduveer had polled 58,598 votes compared to 51,588 votes for Lakshmana, establishing a lead of 7,008           votes. Yaduveer’s lead then advanced to 28,724, 35,467, and 64,860 votes in subsequent rounds. Though Lakshmana received 2,15,538 votes in one of the rounds, Yaduveer surged ahead comfortably and quickly overtook him.

By 12.16 pm, Yaduveer was ahead by 83,648 votes and by 12.36 pm, the titular head of the erstwhile Mysore royal family had established a lead of 88,352 votes. At 12.45 pm, Yaduveer had established a lead by 95,265 votes by gaining 5,80,394 votes as against 4,85,129 votes polled by Lakshmana. At 12.49 pm, Yaduveer was ahead of Lakshmana by 1,03,854 votes by securing 5,80,394 votes as against 4,85,129 votes polled by Lakshmana. 

The BJP chose Yaduveer to contest from the Constituency this year, thereby denying a ticket to a two-term sitting Member of Parliament Prathap Simha. Yaduveer, an economics graduate from the University of Massachusetts, was crowned the new ‘Maharaja’ of the 600-year-old Wadiyar dynasty, in 2015 at the age of 23.

In 2019, Simha defeated C.H. Vijayashankar, who was the Congress candidate at the time, with a margin of 1,38,647 votes. Simha had also won the seat in 2014 by defeating Adagur H. Vishwanath with a margin of 31,608 votes.