Janata Dal Secular leader HD Kumaraswamy has won from the Channapatna constituency by a margin of over 15,000 votes. Continuing his second tenure in a row, Kumaraswamy has defeated the constituency's strong leader CP Yogeshwara in Channapatna with a total of 96,592 votes. The JDS leader claimed a 48.83 per cent of vote share from the constituency.
On the other hand, BJP's CP Yogeshwara secured 43.06% of the total vote count of the constituency. He won a total of 30712 votes till noon. JDS' HD Kumaraswamy's Congress counterpart ranked third in the race with 6.64% of vote share, equivalent to 4738 votes, in the constituency.
Channapatna is one of the key constituencies of the state. It is located in Karnataka's Ramanagar district. It comes under Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency and other eight assembly seats.
Before the beginning of results, former Karnataka CM and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy visited temple in Bengaluru. Later, he said that he was not contacted as yet for the formation of the government in case of a cliffhanger. He also expressed hope of putting up for a good show.
"In the next 2-3 hours, it will become clear. Exit polls show that the two national parties will score in a big way. The polls have given 30-32 seats to JD(S). I am a small party, there is no demand for me...I am hoping for a good development," he said.
Let's wait for the results, according to the exit polls there would be no need for options, he said.
According to the exit polls, JDS would not be able to touch even the 37 seats mark. In 2018 polls, it won more than 35 seats. However, the party will continue to be a strong regional player in the state.
The seat has been long dominated by CP Yogeshwara, since he first fought the polls in 1999 Independendt candidate. He won the seat as a Congress candiddate in Karnataka Elections 2004 and 2008.
Afterwardss, he became one of the politicians who joined the BJP during the infamous ‘Operation Lotus’ in 2008. However, he lost the by-election in 2009 against JD (S) canddiate Ashwath MC. In 2011, he returned to power by winning 2011 bypoll as BJP candidate. In 2013, Yogeshwara contested on a Samajwadi Party(SP) ticket and registered victory against Kumaraswamy’s wife Anita Kumaraswamy. But in 2018, he was defeated by former state Chief Minister Kumaraswamy in 2018 assembly elections with a margin of over 20,000 votes.
Karnataka is the only BJP-ruled state in South India. The current election trend indicates, that the party will lose this state as well.
