Belying expectations of political pundits, Congress nominee and Union Minister K.H. Muniyappa emerged victorious for a record seventh time from the Kolar Lok Sabha (Reserved) seat despite the Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide win in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Muniyappa trounced his nearest rival Kolar Keshav of the Janata Dal (Secular) by a margin of 47,850 votes and pushed the BJP’s M. Narayanaswamy to the third place.
While Mr. Muniyappa secured 4,18,926 votes, Mr. Keshav got 3,71,076 votes and Mr. Narayanaswamy secured 2,67,322 votes.
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Except Kotiganahalli Ramaiah of the Aam Aadmi Party, who was able to secure 17,563 votes, no other candidate among a total 22 in the fray could cross five-digit figure.
It was widely expected that Mr. Keshav would win the seat this time around, thereby putting a break on Mr. Muniyappa’s winning streak who has been getting elected to Parliament since 1991.
However, upsetting the calculations of his rivals as well as those of political observers, Mr. Muniyappa came out on tops. His victory margin was much higher than that of the 2009 Lok Sabha election.
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With this victory, the Congress has been able to maintain the distinction of winning the Kolar Lok Sabha seat in 15 of the 16 general elections held so far since 1951.