Karnataka Lok Sabha results 2019: BJP set for landslide win

NEW DELHI: Leads from Karnataka show the BJP is set for a landslide win, leading on 23 seats of the 28 Lok Sabha seats up for grabs in the state -- a gain of 6 seats from 2014. The Congress-JD(S) combine is leading on 5 seats, a decline of 6 seats from 2014.
JD(S) stalwart HDS Deve Gowda is locked in a close contest against BJP's G S Basavaraj from the Tumkur Lok Sabha constituency.
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.
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP emerged as the largest party with 17 seats and 43% of the vote share. The Congress, with 40.80% of the vote share, was only marginally behind. However, it could manage to score a victory on only 9 seats.
Post the formation of a coalition government after the 2018 assembly elections in Karnataka, JD(S) entered into a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. As part of the Congress-JD(S) alliance, the Congress is contesting on 20 and JD(S )on 8 out of 28 total Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka.
Exit polls predicted that the BJP is likely to repeat its 2014 performance and win 17 to 18 seats, while the Congress-JDS alliance would win 9 to 10 seats, but the BJP looks sets to better exit poll predictions.
Other than contesting Lok Sabha seats, Karnataka seems to be in a perpetual state of crisis with BJP claiming that it will not only win Lok Sabha but also claim the majority in Karnataka assembly. The BJP has claimed that there are Congress-JD(S) MLAs who are willing to switch sides. The Congress has also claimed that it has a list of 10 BJP MLAs who are willing to join Congress.