The winning BJP candidate in Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency, Nalin Kumar Kateel, obtained the highest margin of 47,159 votes from the Sullia Assembly segment.
The same Assembly segment had given him the highest margin of votes in the last Lok Sabha elections too.
Sullia Assembly constituency has been a stronghold of the BJP for the last two-and-half decade. It has been electing Angara S. to the Legislative Assembly since 1994.
Like in the last Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Kateel continued to establish leads over his nearest opponent of the Congress in seven of the eight Assembly segments in Dakshina Kannada.
The BJP candidate trailed by a margin of 11,392 votes against the Congress’ Mithun M. Rai in Mangaluru (erstwhile Ullal) Assembly segment, which is traditionally a Congress belt.
Mangaluru City North Assembly constituency gave Mr. Kateel the highest second lead of 46,088 votes in this Lok Sabha elections. The third highest was 44,760 votes from Belthangady Assembly segment.
As many as 12,07,583 voters cast their votes in the Lok Sabha elections in Dakshina Kannada in 2014. Of them, 6,42,739 votes went to Mr. Kateel. His nearest opponent, B Janardhan Poojary of the Congress, received 4,99,030 votes.
Mr. Kateel obtained the maximum lead from Sullia Assembly segment with 34,024 votes. The following are the leads in favour of Mr Kateel in the Assembly segments in the last Lok Sabha elections: Mangalore City North (23,439), Bantwal (23,327), Puttur (23,241), Belthangady (22,856), Moodbidri (19,275) and Mangalore City South (13,086). However, he trailed Mr. Poojary in the Mangalore Assembly segment by 13,035 votes.
