BJP leads in 23 seats, leaving ruling Cong-JDS alliance way behind in Karnataka

Bengaluru: BJP in Karnataka is racing ahead of the ruling Congres-JDS coalition by leading in 23 out of total 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, according to the Election Commission trends.

Congress is ahead in three seats and JD(S) in one, with trends available so far indicating that the alliance between the two parties may not have worked.

An Independent candidate is leading in Mandya.

Former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch H D DeveGowda is trailing in Tumkur against BJP's G S Basavaraj by amargin of 5,026 votes.

Veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who has remained unassailable electorally in his several decades-long political career, is also trailing in Gulbarga against former party colleague- Umesh Jadhav of the BJP by 10,299 votes.

Deve Gowda's grandson and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil is trailing against independent candidate- Sumalatha Ambareesh, supported by the BJP, by 1,084 votes in the bitterly fought Mandya constituency.

Gowdas other grandson Prajwal Revanna, son of minister H D Revanna, is leading in Hassan against A Manju of the BJP by a margin of 52,282 votes.

Senior Congress leaders Veerappa Moily and K H Muniyappa are trailing against BJP candidates in Chikkaballapur and Kolar by a margin of 31,169 and 51,402 votes respectively.

Union ministers D V Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North), Ramesh Jigajinagi (Bijapur) and Ananthkumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada) are leading over their opponents. Other BJP candidates who had established initial leads were Bache Gowda (Chikkaballapur), Annasaheb Jolle (Chikkodi), Tejavi Surya (Bangalore South), Bhagwanth Khuba (Bidar), A Narayanaswamy (Chitradurga), Nalin Kumar Kateel (Dakshina Kannada), G M Siddeshwar (Davangere) and Prathap Simha (Mysore). Also leading BJP candidates are Pralhad Joshi in Dharwad, C S Udasi from Haveri, Muniswamy from Kolar, Karadi Snaganna from Koppal, B Y Raghavendra from Shimoga, Gaddigoudar Parvatagouda Chandanagouda from Bagalkot, Suresh Angadi from Belgaum and Devendrappa from Bellary.

Among Congress candidates leading are Rizwan Arshadfrom Bangalore Central, D K Suresh from Bangalore Rural and Dhruvanarayan from Chamarajanagar.

As the favourable trends came out, BJP cadres burst into jubilation chanting of 'BJP Dil Se, Modi Fir Se' and 'Matthomme Modi' (Modi again) in front of the party headquarters here.

The party workers swarmed Jagannath Bhavan, waving party flags, posters, placards and filling the air with pro-BJP slogans. They burst crackers too as the trends showed the party heading towards a big victory.