The Bharatiya Janata Party swept aside the Congress in parts of Hyderabad Karnataka and Bombay-Karnataka region, to make a solid comeback after a dismal performance in the 2013 Assembly elections. This served as a warning notice to the Congress-led State government.
It would have been a total whitewash for the Congress, but for the resounding victory of Railway Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge in Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency.
However, the Congress suffered one of the biggest losses in Bidar LS constituency with the defeat of the former Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh in the hands of a political greenhorn, Basvantrao Khuba, a civil contractor and vice-president of the district unit of the BJP.
The BJP also retained its hold on the Bijapur and Bagalkot constituencies winning with increased margins.
While P.C. Gaddigoudar made it three times in a row , the former Minister Ramesh Jigajinagi retained the Bijapur LS constituency defeating Prakash Rathod of the Congress by a margin of 69,819 votes.
In the 2013 Assembly elections, the Congress party had made solid gains in all the four LS constituencies, including Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur and Bagalkot.
However, in this election, the BJP made good the loss of vote base with the merger of the Karnataka Janata Paksha, headed by the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and B. Sriramulu’s party.
For the Congress, the only consolation was Mr. Kharge’s victory.
He weathered the Modi wave, sweeping the entire region and registered a resounding victory in Gulbarga LS seat.
The counting in Bidar Lok Sabha constituency was stopped due to a technical error in the EVMs and the election authorities have sought the directions of the Election Commission for declaring the results.
The counting of only seven EVMs have to be completed and the total number of pending votes to be counted was just 7,000 votes.
