Three women candidates win LS polls

 Bengaluru: Three women candidates from Karnataka will represent the state in the Lok Sabha with BJP leader Shobha Karandlaje becoming the first-ever woman MP from Bengaluru while debutants from Congress -- Prabha Mallikarjun and Priyanka Jarkiholi --posted wins from Davangere and Chikkodi, respectively, on Tuesday.

The Congress had fielded six women while the BJP had picked two women candidates in the state, which has a total of 28 Lok Sabha seats. Union Minister Karandlaje won by a margin of 2,59,476 votes in Bengaluru North constituency defeating Congress candidate M V Rajeev Gowda.

Out of the six candidates fielded by Congress, Prabha Mallikarjun who made her electoral debut, became the first-ever woman MP from Davangere. Coming from a political family and canvassing for Congress candidates for two decades and more in the past elections there, she defeated BJP’s Gayathri Siddeshwara by a margin of 26,094 votes. Once a Congress stronghold, the BJP has been winning the Davangere seat since 1999.

The 48-year-old Prabha, a dentist, wife of District in-charge Minister S S Mallikarjun and daughter-in-law of veteran Congress leader and Davangere South MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa, managed to wrest the seat for Congress as she secured 6,33,059 votes while Gayathri, wife of four-time MP and former union minister G M Siddeshwara, got 6,06,965.

In an interview to PTI earlier in the run-up to the elections, Prabha had said that if elected, her top priority would be health, education, employment, irrigation and drinking water issues. She is also keen on working towards women self-empowerment, establishment of handicraft industries and encouraging home-based products. Priyanka Jarkiholi, daughter of Karnataka Minister of Public Works Department Satish Jarkiholi, won the Chikkodi seat by a margin of 90,834 votes defeating BJP MP Annasaheb Shankar Jolle. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy’s 41-year-old daughter Sowmya Reddy, who was fielded from Bengaluru South segment, lost to MP and BJP Youth Wing chief Tejasvi Surya by a margin of 2,770,83 votes.

Samyukta Patil, the 30-year-old law graduate and daughter of Agricultural Produce and Sugar Minister Shivanand Patil, too lost to her 72-year-old opponent P C Gaddigoudar of the BJP, who has been representing the Bagalkot constituency since 2004, by a margin of 68,399 votes. Gynecologist and Congress candidate Anjali Nimbalkar too lost to former Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri of the BJP by a margin of 3,37,428 votes in Uttara Kannada segment.

Geeta Shivarajkumar of the Congress, wife of sandalwood actor Shivarajkumar and daughter-in-law of Kannada thespian late Rajkumar, lost in Shimoga to BJP veteran B S Yediyurappa’s son B Y Raghavendra, who retained the seat by a margin of more than two lakh votes.