Houseful or Flop Show? How the Kar-Nataka Ended for 15 Key Candidates | DKS, Sidda to Bommai, Savadi & Shettar

While the Congress is poised to come to power in Karnataka, after ousting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from its only southern state on Saturday, there were several shock wins and losses for several high-profile candidates.

As results from the May 10 elections made the BJP’s defeat increasingly apparent, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai virtually conceded defeat and said the party had not been able to make the mark “in spite of a lot of effort put in by everyone, including the prime minister and workers of the party".

For the Congress, desperately looking to reverse its electoral fortunes and position itself as the main opposition player in 2024, this was the moment they had been waiting for.

“This is the victory of ‘janata janardhan’," Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on the party’s performance in his home state.

“All our leaders have worked unitedly and people have voted for our guarantees," Kharge added.

It was a bitterly contested, often vitriolic election campaign punctuated by Bajrang Dal, Bajrang Bali, corruption and intense debates on the state government scrapping 4 per cent reservation for OBC Muslims and issues such as the hijab.

A look at how 15 high-profile candidates fared:

WINNERS

1. SIDDARAMAIAH: Considered the Congress’s CM face, mass leader Siddaramaiah, left the JDS for the Congress in 2005. He became Chief Minister twice and is the only former CM to have completed a full tenure in two decades from 2013 to 2018. He defeated BJP’s V Somanna in Varuna.
2. D K SHIVAKUMAR: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief DK Shivakumar, a seven-time MLA and popular as the trouble-shooter for the Congress, defeated BJP’s R Ashoka in Kanakapura. The Vokkaliga leader has enjoyed various portfolios as a minister and is considered a contender for the post of the CM.
3. H D KUMARASWAMY: JDS leader and two-time chief minister HD Kumaraswamy won the high-stakes battle in Channapatna seat of Ramanagara district against BJP’s CP Yogeshwara. Both belonged to the dominant Vokkaliga community in the region. Kumaraswamy, or HDK as he is known, had defeated Yogeshwara in the 2018 elections, ending the latter’s five-term run. HDK, however, chose to retain the Ramanagara seat which he had also won and went on to head the JD(S)-Congress coalition government as the CM for 14 months.
4. VIJAYENDRA YEDIYURAPPA: Son of former chief minister and Lingayat strongman BS Yediyurappa, BY Vijayendra defeated Chandrakanth S Revanakar (AAP) and Congress’s Goni Malatesh in Shikaripura. Vijayendra started his political career as secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha’s Bengaluru unit in 2009. Promoted to the ranks of Vice-President of Karnataka BJP, Vijayendra contested from Shikaripura where his father held a strong hold before quitting electoral politics ahead of Karnataka elections 2023.
5. DR G PARAMESHWARA: The Congress candidate from Koratagere constituency defeated BJP’s B H Anil Kumar.
6. DR ASHWATH NARAYAN C N: Dr Ashwath Narayan C N, a BJP candidate from Malleshwaram constituency, defeated Anoop Iyengar (Congress).
7. LAXMAN SAVADI: Savadi, who quit the BJP for the Congress days after he was denied a ticket to contest from Athani, a high-profile seat in Belgavi district, won the election against BJP’s Mahesh Iranagouda Kumathalli. Savadi, an incumbent MLC, has been three-time MLA from Athani. The BJP accommodated him as an MLC after he was asked to step aside for Kumatihalli in the 2019 bypolls. Savadi had lost the 2018 elections to Mahesh Kumathalli who was then in the Congress, but later defected to the BJP along with Ramesh Jarkiholi and 14 others. The BJP gave the ticket to Kumatihalli this time and an upset Savadi has vowed to defeat his former party.
8. G JANARDHAN REDDY: Mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, through his newly formed Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha (KRPP), won the Gangawati seat. A former BJP minister, Reddy severed ties with the saffron party and floated the KRPP in December last year. He had been politically inactive for nearly 12 years after being arrested by the CBI for his alleged role in a mining scam. Reddy re-entered Karnataka’s electoral politics from outside bastion Ballari and contested from Gangawati in Koppal district. He won against Congress’s Iqbal Ansari.
9. BASAVARAJ BOMMAI: BJP leader and incumbent CM Bommai won from Shiggaon. He took over the reins from BS Yediyurappa to become the 17th Chief Minister of Karnataka in 2021. He defeated Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan of the Congress and Shashidhar Channabasappa Yaligar from the JDS.

LOSERS

With Agency Inputs