Independents play spoilsport in Bengaluru polls 

BENGALURU:  All the independent candidates who contested from 28 assembly constituencies in Bengaluru lost their deposit of Rs 10,000, having failed to secure 1/6th of the total votes polled. In some constituencies, they played spoilsport.

In total, 918 independents contested in this assembly election, with 132 in the fray from 28 constituencies in Bengaluru. Shivajinagar had the highest number of independents -- nine had joined the race. 
Interestingly, the Jayanagar constituency, which witnessed a fierce fight between Congress candidate Sowmya Reddy and BJP candidate CK Ramamurthy, fell into the BJP’s kitty with a winning margin of 16 votes, after several rounds of counting.

There was an independent by the name ‘Sowmya A Reddy’ who secured 320 votes and another independent ‘B Ramamurthy’, who got 203 votes, who could have tilted the scales.  Congress rebel Yousuf Shariff, alias KGF Babu, spoiled the chances of official candidate RV Devaraj’s win in Chickpet constituency. Even before the official Congress list was out and the model code of conduct came into force, KGF Babu was working in Chickpet and distributing freebies.

Denied a Congress ticket, he contested as an independent and secured 20,931 votes. Devaraj got 45,186 votes and BJP candidate Uday Garudachar got 57,299 votes, winning by a margin of 12,113 votes. If KGF Babu had not contested as an independent, Congress workers maintain that their votes would not have split, and Devaraj could have won comfortably. Babu lost his deposit by over 500 votes. 

Former minister and BJP rebel Krisshnaiah Setty put a spoke in the wheel for Gandhinagar candidate Sapthagiri Gowda, by netting 6,871 votes. Gowda lost to Dinesh Gundu Rao by just 105 votes. Setty, too, had started working in the Gandhinagar constituency and had distributed ration kits. Having failed to get the BJP ticket, he contested as an independent.

BJP workers, who had expected to defeat Gundu Rao, blamed Setty for slicing into BJP votes, helping the Congress candidate.  Among the independents from Bengaluru, Jameel Ahmed who contested from Shivajinagar secured just 22 votes.