Bengaluru: The verdict of the high stakes Battle For Karnataka will be out on Tuesday. It will answer the existential question for Congress that has been losing assembly elections state after state to the Bhartiya Janata Party. For the BJP it will be an indication of the mood of the nation for the upcoming 2019 General Elections.
The high pitched campaigning in the state had a voter turnout of 72.13%.
Let’s take a look at some quick facts:
Trivia
- Women voters outnumber men in 61 of the 222 constituencies.
- With 39 candidates Mulbagal (reserved for the scheduled caste) constituency in Southern Karnataka has the maximum number of candidates contesting the elections from a single constituency
- In over six decades only 10 candidates have been elected to the Vidhan Souda uncontested. These have been for 6 seats in 1957, 2 seats in 1962 and 2 seats in 1967.
- In the closest contest, Dhruvanarayana R of Congress defeated JD(S)’ Krishna Murthy AR by 1 vote for the Santhemarahalli seat in 2004.
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Largest and Smallest Constituencies
- With an electorate of more than 5.81 lakhs, Karnataka’s largest Assembly constituency is Bangalore South.
- Sringeri is the smallest constituency.
- The electorate of Bangalore south is three-and-a-half-times that of Sringeri.
- Challakere in Central Karnataka and Sedam in Hyderabad Karnataka only have 4 candidates.
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The Richest, Oldest, and Candidate with the Highest Liability
- The Congress party has the three richest candidates in the 2018 elections.
- With declared assets of Rs 1020 crore, the sitting Govindarajnagar Congress MLA, Priya Krishna is the richest candidate.
- Priya Krishna also has the highest liability at the value of Rs 802 crore.
- 87-year-old Kagodu Thimmappa of Congress is the oldest candidate contesting in the Karnataka Assembly elections 2018 from 117 Sagar constituency.
- The Congress party is not contesting elections in 2 constituencies including Mulbagal.
Key Constituencies
Chamundeshwari, Mysuru: One of two constituencies from which Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of the Congress is contesting. His main contender is G.T. Devegowda of the JD(S), who won the seat in the 2013 Assembly election.
Badami, Bagalkot: The second constituency from where Siddaramaiah is contesting. His main contender is B. Sriramulu of the BJP.
Molakalmuru, Chitradurga: Second seat from which BJP’s Sriramulu is contesting.
Varuna, Mysuru: Represented by Siddaramaiah till he decided to vacate it for his son Dr Yatindra, who will be making his poll debut.
Shikaripura, Shimoga: Shikaripura, stronghold of BJP’s contender B.S. Yeddyurappa. Since 1983, Yeddyurappa has won all elections in Shikaripura, barring one.
Ramanagaram: Pocket borough JD(S) chief’s H.D. Devegowda’s clan. His son, former chief minister and incumbent H.D. Kumaraswamy is contesting from here.
Channapatna, Ramanagaram: One of the two constituencies from where Kumaraswamy is contesting. His wife fought the election from this seat in 2013 and lost.
Dharwad: Congress minister Vinay Kulkarni key figure in the Lingayat separate religion agitation, won the 2013 election, is up against Amrut Ayyappa Desai of BJP.
Vijayanagara (Bellary): This seat is interesting – a tainted mining baron, Anand Singh, had won it for the BJP in 2008 and 2013. This time, Singh is contesting on a Congress ticket and his main rival is H.R.Gaviyappa, an ex-Congressman, who switched over to the BJP.
Koratagere, Tumkuru: State Congress chief and former minister G. Parameshwara is contesting. In 2013, Parameshwara had lost from the constituency to incumbent MLA Sudhakara Lal P.R. of the JD(S).
Kanakapura, Ramanagaram: Senior Congress minister D.K. Shivakumar won this in the last two elections (2008 and 2013) and is contesting for the third time.
Babaleshwar, Vijayapura: Congress leader M.B. Patil, who is a minister in the state government, is fighting from here against Vijugouda Patil from BJP. He won it in 2008 and 2013.
Melukote: Darshan Puttannaiah, a techie is being supported by the Congress.
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