Win for a mining baron, 3 politician-brothers; a bastion breached: Karnataka poll sidelights

The Congress tally of 135 is the biggest win for any in the state since 1989, when the party had won 178 seats under the leadership of Veerendra Patil. The Congress’s vote share, too, reached a high of 42.9% — also the highest after 1989, when it won 43.76% of the votes polled. In terms of the tally, they had come close in 1999 when under S M Krishna the party bagged 132 seats. In 2013, when it formed the government under Siddaramaiah, the party won 122 constituencies.

* Eight of 17 rebels from 2019 lose

Of the 17 Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) rebels who joined the BJP and toppled the government led by H D Kumaraswamy, eight lost on Saturday They are Pratapgouda Patil (Maski), B C Patil (Hirekerur), K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), M T B Nagaraj (Hoskote), Shrimant Patil (Kagwad); Mahesh Kumathalli (Athani), K C Narayana Gowda (K R Pet), and R Shankar (Ranibennur).

* Jarkiholi brothers win big

Karnataka is also home to many political families. One such is the Jarkiholi family in Belagavi. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president Satish Jarkiholi won from Yemkanmardi by 57,000 votes. His brothers Ramesh and Balachandra, both of whom are in the BJP, won from Gokak and Arabhavi by 25,000 and 71,540 votes, respectively.

* Sriram Sene founder Pramod Muthalik gets just 4,000 votes

Hindu rightwing outfit Sri Ram Sene’s founder Pramod Muthalik got only 4,508 seats in Karkal, losing to the BJP’s V Sunil Kumar. Muthalik received 2.87% of the votes polled, finishing a distant third. Muthalik’s outfit came to the limelight after it attacked a group of women and men in a pub in Mangaluru in 2009. The Sri Ram Sene is known for raking up communally polarising issues and moral policing of inter-religious relationships in Karnataka.

* Mining baron wins, wife loses

Mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy was in the fray this time by launching the Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha party. He won the Gangawati seat in Koppal district by polling 66,213 votes. Iqbal Ansari of the Congress came second with 57,947 votes. But Reddy’s wife G Lakshmi Aruna and brother Somasekhara, both of whom were pitted against each other in Bellary City, lost to the Congress’s Nara Bharath Reddy.

* Candidate barred from constituency, but wins

Congress leader Vinay Kulkarni is not allowed to enter Dharwad district as per a Supreme Court order in a case related to the murder of Zila Panchayat member Yogeesh Gowda. Kulkarni, however, polled 89,333 votes and won from the Dharwad constituency against the BJP’s Amrut Ayyappa Desai by 18,037 votes.

* A bastion breached

In a major upset, the Congress wrested control of the constituencies of Virajpet and Madikeri in Kodagu district that the BJP had not lost for 24 years.

The BJP’s K G Bopaiah lost to A S Ponnanna of the Congress in Virajpet, breaking the 24-year-old hold of the party in the seat. Appachu Ranjan, who was eyeing his fourth win, lost to the Congress’s Dr Mantar Gowda in Madikeri by 4,402 votes.

— With PTI inputs