Udupi, May 23: BJP’s Shobha Karandlaje retained the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru parliamentary seat by defeating JD(S) candidate Pramod Madhwaraj by a massive margin of 3,49,599 votes.
Ms. Karandlaje secured 7,18,916 votes, while Mr. Madhwaraj got 3,69,317 votes. Ms. Karandlaje had won the seat by 1,81,643 votes in the 2014 parliamentary elections by defeating then Congress leader K. Jayaprakash Hegde, who has since joined the BJP.
Ms. Karandlaje, who established lead over Mr. Madhwaraj in the first round, maintained it through the next 20 rounds. There were a total of 12 candidates in the fray for the 2019 parliamentary polls in the constituency.
The Congress did not contest the elections this time as the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru parliamentary seat was left to the JD(S) as part of the seat-sharing agreement.
Of the remaining 10 candidates, P. Parameshwara of Bahujan Samaj Party got 15,947 votes, P. Goutham Prabhu of Shiv Sena got 7,431 votes, M.K. Dayananda of Proutist Sarva Samaj secured 3,539 votes, Comrade Vijaykumar of CPI (ML) Red Star got 2,216 votes, Shekhar Havanje of Republican Party of India Karnataka got 1,581 votes, and Suresh Kunder of Uttama Prajakiya Party got 3,488 votes.
The votes polled by Independents were: Abdul Rahman (6,017 votes), Amrith Shenoy P. (7,981 votes), Maggalamakki Ganesha (3,256 votes), and K.C. Prakash (3,543 votes). As many as 7,510 voters voted for NOTA.
Speaking to presspersons, Ms. Karandlaje said that the results showed that the people had rejected the Congress-JD(S) government.
“The people had rejected the anti-farmer and anti-people policies of the State government. The BJP would not entice any MLAs from the Congress or JD(S). But, if MLAs from these two parties resign and join the BJP, we will welcome them,” she said.
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