While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recorded a thumping majority in Karnataka, a former Prime Minister, a former Chief Minister and two former Union Ministers tasted defeat.
Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who migrated from his home constituency Hassan to Tumakuru; Congress leader in the Lok Sabha M. Mallikarjun Kharge, who had never lost an election since the beginning of his political career in 1972; M. Veerappa Moily, who was the joint candidate of the JD(S)-Congress coalition; and K.H. Muniyappa, who had won seven consecutive times from Kolar, failed to make it.
In his five-decade political career, Mr. Deve Gowda has lost in the Lok Sabha polls for the third time. He lost to BJP candidate G.S. Basavaraj in Tumakuru Lok Sabha constituency with a margin of 13,339 votes. He had given up Hassan, his home constituency which he had nurtured since 1991, to accommodate his grandson, Prajwal Revanna. Mr. Prajwal Revanna did not disappoint the patriarch as he became the lone JD(S) candidate to win this time.
In 2004, Mr. Deve Gowda contested from both Kanakapura Lok Sabha constituency and Hassan. While he lost in Kanakapura, he emerged victorious in Hassan. In 1999, he had lost to G. Puttaswamy Gowda of the Congress in Hassan.
Kharge’s first defeat
Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge, who won all 11 elections in a row — nine Assembly elections and two Lok Sabha elections — lost to BJP’s Umesh Jadhav by a margin of 95,452 votes.
He began his winning streak right from his first election that he contested from Gurmitkal Assembly Constituency in 1972 and continued to represent it in the Assembly till 2004. In 2008, he shifted to neighbouring Chittapur that had just become SC-reserved constituency, and won from there.
After BJP assumed power in the State in that election, he resigned his Assembly membership to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Kalaburagi and won with a slender margin of just 13,404 votes against his immediate rival Revu Naik Belamagi of BJP. He served as the Minister of Labour and Employment and Railways Minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet during the second term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he again won from Kalaburagi with an improved margin of 74,733 votes.
Likewise, Mr. Veerappa Moily, who hails from the coastal belt, lost to BJP’s B.N. Bache Gowda by a margin of 1.82 lakh votes. Mr. Bacche Gowda had lost against Mr. Moily in 2014 Lok Sabha polls by a narrow margin of about 9,500 votes. Mr. Moily, who was the Chief Minister from 1992 to 1994, had won from Chickballapur in 2009 Lok Sabha polls. However, this time he failed to perform a hat trick.
Another former Union Minister K.H. Muniyappa missed out on making history in Kolar. Had he won this time, he would have equalled veteran Congressman the late Jaffer Sharief’s record of winning Lok Sabha elections eight times.
Mr. Muniyappa was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 and had successfully retained his home turf. This time, he lost to S. Muniswamy, a corporator representing Kadugodi ward in Bengaluru, by a margin of 2.09 lakh votes.
(With inputs from Murilidhara Khajane and Kumar Buradikatti)