Dr. Sooraj Revanna bags Hassan seat

Madikeri: Suja Kushalappa of the BJP won the Kodagu MLC seat. He defeated his nearest rival Dr. Manthar Gowda of the Congress by a margin of 105 votes.

 Kushalappa was the first winner to be officially declared in the State, after the counting ended at St.Joseph’s School in Madikeri, barely a couple of hours into counting.

The Constituency had witnessed near cent percent voting on Dec.10 as 1,325 of the 1,329 voters had exercised their franchise. The JD(S) had withdrawn its candidate at the last minute and had reportedly supported the Congress.

However, BJP’s Suja Kusha-lappa succeeded in overcoming Manthar Gowda of the Congress, to retain the seat for the BJP.

While Suja Kushalappa is a brother of Madikeri MLA and former Minister Appachu Ranjan, Manthar Gowda is the son of former Minister A. Manju.

Hassan

The JD(S) managed to retain its fold over Hassan, as its candidate Dr. Sooraj Revanna won by a big margin from Hassan, defeating his Congress and BJP rivals.

Sooraj is one of the two sons of former Minister and JD(S) top leader H.D. Revanna, whose another son Prajwal Revanna is the current Lok Sabha MP from Hassan.

Congress leading  in Mandya

In Mandya, considered as another stronghold of JD(S), Congress candidate Dinesh Gooligowda was leading by a slender margin against his nearest rival Appaji Gowda of the JD(S) while BJP                                                               candidate Bookahalli Manju was trailing far behind his nearest rivals.

Dinesh Gooligowda had until recently served as the Officer on Special Duty to Co-operation Minister and Mysuru District In-charge Minister S.T. Somashekar.

Elsewhere in the State, the BJP was leading/won in 12 out of the 25 seats, while the Congress came a close second leading/won in 11, the JD(S) in one and Independent candidate in one.

The BJP was leading/won in Kodagu, Chikkamagalur, Kalaburagi, Bengaluru Urban, Dakshina Kannada-Udupi (dual member), Chitradurga, Dharwad (dual member), Vijayapura-Bagalkot (dual member), Mysuru-Chamarajanagar (dual member), Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada and Ballari.

The Congress was leading/won in Mysuru-Chamarajangar, Mandya, Tumakuru, Kolar, Dharwad (dual member), Belagavi (dual member), Bengaluru Rural, Mandya, Raichur, Vijayapura-Bagalkot (dual member) and Bidar.

The JD(S) won only one seat (Hassan) and was engaged in a see-saw battle with the BJP in Mysuru-Chamarajanagar seat for the second position.

In Belagavi, independent candidate Lakhan Jarkiholi was in the second position in the dual-member Belagavi seat, where the Congress candidate Channaraj Hattiholi won by a comfortable margin.

BJP candidate Mahantesh Kavatagimath, who is a sitting MLC, was a distant third and the party has lost all hopes of a win here. Channaraj Hattiholi is the younger brother of outspoken Congress MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar,  while Lakhan Jarkiholi is the brother of BJP MLAs Balachandra Jarkiholi and Ramesh Jarkiholi and Congress MLA Satish Jarkiholi.  Both the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress had contested 20 seats each, while JD(S) had contested in just six seats.