The Congress in Dakshina Kannada wrested three seats from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2013 Assembly elections — the results of which were declared on Wednesday.
The Congress won in Mangalore City South, Mangalore City North and Puttur Assembly constituencies — held by the BJP.
Of eight Assembly constituencies in the district, the Congress won seven and the BJP retained the Sullia seat. In the last Assembly election the Congress and the BJP had won four seats each.
All four Congress MLAs in the last term — B. Ramanath Rai, U.T. Khader, K. Abhayachandra and K. Vasantha Bangera — have retained their seats.
The BJP suffered a major setback in Mangalore City South, represented by its candidate N. Yogish Bhat, also Deputy Speaker in the outgoing Legislative Assembly, for four consecutive terms, as J. R. Lobo, a former bureaucrat, managed to defeat him by a margin of 12,275 votes.
Another shock for the BJP was in Mangalore City North constituency where B.A. Mohiuddin Bava of the Congress defeated J. Krishna Palemar, former district in-charge minister and former minister for Ports, Inland Water Transport, by a margin of 5,373 votes. Mr. Palemar was a two-term MLA from the same constituency.
The BJP also lost its stronghold over Puttur constituency. S. Angara of the BJP managed to retain his Sullia seat for the fifth consecutive time.
B. Ramanath Rai, president, district Congress Committee, won the election from Bantwal for the sixth time. Earlier he had won on the Congress ticket from the same constituency in 1985, 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2008. Mr. Rai had lost the election once in 2004 to B. Nagaraja Shetty of the BJP.
U.T. Khader, a two-time MLA from Mangalore constituency, has won for the third consecutive time.
Earlier he had won the by-election from Mangalore in 2007 and general election in 2008.
He defeated his nearest rival Chandrahasa Ullal of the BJP by the highest margin (in the district) of 29,111 votes.
K. Abhayachandra of the Congress has won from Moodbidri for the fourth consecutive term and Mr. Bangera from Belthangady for the fifth time.
