12 ministers swept under Cong wave

Twelve ministers of the Jagadish Shettar Cabinet,including deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa,fell by the wayside,rubbing salt into the wounds of the vanquished BJP

Twelve ministers of the Jagadish Shettar Cabinet,including deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa,fell by the wayside,rubbing salt into the wounds of the vanquished BJP.

Eshwarappas loss in Shimoga is all the more significant as he was a former state unit president of the party and also held the key portfolios of rural development and panchayat raj and revenue. Eshwarappa lost by about 5,000 votes,and was behind his oponents of the Congress and the KJP of former CM B S Yeddyurappa. Eshwarappa had been in the hit-list of Yeddyurappa,who had sweet revenge.

Another big gun to lose was Industries Minister Murugesh R Nirani,who had spearheaded two global investors meets and who was in two minds till the last minute whether to join forces with the KJP but who eventually remained with the BJP,in Bilgi. He lost by 11,000 votes to Congresss J T Patil in the constituency,where the KJP had not fielded a candidate.

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Other ministers who lost included V Somanna (Vijayanagar),B N Bache Gowda (Hoskote),Revunaik Belamagi (Gulbarga Rural),A Narayanaswamy (Anekal),Sogadu Shivanna (Tumkur),S K Bellubbi (Basavana Bagewadi),Kalakappa Bandi (Ron),S A Ravindranatha (Davangere North),S A Ramadass (Krishnaraja) and Anand Asnotikar (Karwar).

The Congress was not without casualties. In a shock defeat,Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G Parameshwara,until then a CM candidate,lost in Koratagere in Tumkur district to JD(S) opponent P R Sudhakara Lal by more than 18,000 votes. And former civil aviation minister C M Ibrahim was pushed to third position in Bhadrawati.

Meanwhile,infrastructure-entrepreneur of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Project Ashok Kheny,the Karnataka Makkala Paksha candidate,won from Bidar South,defeating sitting JD(S) MLA Bandeppa Kashempur.