Karnataka as a whole may have had some major upsets on Tuesday, but the State Assembly election results brought almost no surprises to the capital city. Bengalureans will deal with pretty much the same people, with most MLAs in the 26 constituencies that went to polls being re-elected, some of them for the seventh time.
As many as 22 incumbents have won. Among them were the big names: K.J. George, N.A. Haris, Ramalinga Reddy and Aravind Limbavali.
R. Akhanda Srinivasamurthy, the winning candidate from Pulakeshinagar, won by the highest margin in the State — 81,626 — against B. Prasanna Kumar of the JD(S). He was fighting on a Congress ticket this time. Last election, he had contested on a JD(S) ticket and won by 10,199 votes.
Big upsets
There were four big upsets: the BJP’s V. Sommanna defeated the Congress’s Priyakrishna in Govindraj Nagar by a margin of 11,375. Mr. Priyakrishna had won the last election by a margin of 42,460 votes.
In Chickpet, the BJP’s Uday Garudachar won against incumbent R.V. Devaraj (Congress) by 7,934 votes.
R. Manjunatha of the JD(S) clinched Dasarahalli from S. Muniraju of the BJP while Suresh B.S. of the Congress won Hebbal, defeating incumbent Y.A. Narayanaswamy.
Party-wise
Bengaluru was a mixed bag for all three major parties. Even as Congress faced a rout in the State, the party retained most of its bastions winning 13 seats, equalling its tally in 2013. However, the Congress had gone to the polls with two MLAs of the JD(S) defecting to the Congress — B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan from Chamrajpet, and R. Akhanda Srinivasamurthy from Pulakeshinagar — taking its tally up to 15. BJP's tally in the city went down from 12 to 11 and that of the JD(S) from 3 to 2.
Two more constituencies — Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar — are yet to go to polls.
New faces fail to make an impact
Pitting new faces against incumbents provided no gains to opposition parties. Among the most awaited announcements was who the Congress will field from C.V. Raman Nagar. Mayor R. Sampath Raj was picked to make his debut in State politics, but he failed to dent the BJP’s S. Raghu’s vote bank. With a miffed P. Ramesh defecting from the Congress to the JD(S) and contesting from the same constituency, votes coming the Congress’s way were split.
Lallesh Reddy, a relative of mining baron Janardhan Reddy, was fielded against Ramalinga Reddy in B.T.M. Layout with much fanfare, but made little impact. Among the youngest candidates fielded this time, 27-year-old Manjunatha H.S. from Congress, also failed to make a mark.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s ambitious campaigns in Sarvagnanagar, led by Prithvi Reddy, against K.J. George and in Shantinagar, led by Renuka Viswanathan, against N.A. Haris had little impact.
Two candidates with famous family names — Kengal Shreepadharenu and A.R. Sapthagiri Gowda — also lost.
Old guard
Former minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, who is a three-term MLA from the city, lost to his old opponent R. Roshan Baig in Shivajinagar. Roshan Baig and Mr. Naidu clashed in 1994 in Shivajinagar when Mr. Baig defeated Mr. Naidu by a comfortable margin. This time too, Mr. Baig defeated Mr. Naidu by a margin of over 20,000 votes.
B. Prasanna Kumar, a three-time MLA and son of Dalit leader B. Basavalingappa, shifted to the JD(S) after being denied a ticket by the Congress and contested against R. Akhanda Srinivasamurthy, but lost.
22 of the 26 MLAs in the contest were re-elected
If the results of the last few elections are anything to go by, voters in the city are more than happy with their MLAs. They have re-elected 22 incumbents of the 26 MLAs in the contest.
Election to Rajarajeshwari Nagar has been deferred, and the poll in Jayanagar have been countermanded.
While in 2013, the city elected six first-time MLAs, the number has come down to three – Uday Garudachar, R. Manjunatha and Suresh B.S. – this time.
Ramalinga Reddy and R. Roshan Baig have emerged as political giants by entering the Assembly for the seventh time. Five MLAs – Dinesh Gundu Rao, V. Somanna, Krishna Byre Gowda, K.J. George, S. Suresh Kumar – are entering the Assembly for the fifth time. S. Raghu is the only MLA from the city to be elected for a fourth term.
Nine MLAs are entering the Assembly for the third time and, interestingly, all of them have won elections consecutively from 2008 and recorded a hatrick on Tuesday.
Of the six debutantes of 2013, four – B.A. Basavaraj, K. Gopalaiah, Akhanda Srinivasamurthy and S.T. Somashekhar – have retained their seats. While Y.A. Narayana Swamy from Hebbal lost, Muniratna's fate in R.R. Nagar is yet to be decided.
