Riding the Modi wave, the BJP not only retained all the three Lok Sabha seats in the city that it had won in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, but its candidates have also increased their margin of victory.
In Bangalore South, former Union Minister Ananth Kumar has been elected for the sixth consecutive time. He polled 6.33 lakh votes while his closest rival Nandan Nilekani, former Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDIA) chief and Congress candidate, got 4.05 lakh votes.
In Bangalore North, former Chief Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda secured 7.18 lakh votes while his closest rival, C. Narayaswamy of the Congress, got 4.88 lakh.
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In Bangalore Central, P. C. Mohan polled 5.57 lakh votes while his nearest rival Rizwan Arshad of the Congress got 4.19 lakh.
The BJP has swept the Lok Sabha constituencies in Bangalore barely a year after losing the elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in May 2013 to the Congress. The BJP’s triumph is notable because 11 of the 24 Assembly constituencies in the city had elected Congress candidates. The BJP won 10 Assembly constituencies while JD (S) has three seats.
The BJP had re-nominated Mr. Ananth Kumar and Mr. Mohan, but had replaced former Minister D. B. Chandregowda with former Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda as its candidate for the Bangalore North constituency.
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All three candidates attributed their victory to the leadership of their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Though Janata Dal (Secular) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates were also in the fray, they ended up as also-rans. The JD (S) candidate in Bangalore North, Abdul Azeem polled 92,681 votes, while their candidate in Bangalore Central, Nandini Alva, secured 20,387 votes. In Bangalore South, JD (S) candidate Ruth Manorama got 25,677 votes. The AAP’s candidate in Bangalore Central, V. Balakrishnan, also a former Infosysian, polled 39,869 votes while the party’s candidate in Bangalore North, Babu Mathew, secured 28,107. In Bangalore South, the AAP’s Nina P. Nayak polled 21,403 votes.