The schedule for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections was released last Saturday, March 16. Voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats will take place in seven phases between April 19 and June 1, and the results will be counted on June 4, as per the Election Commission’s notification. Karnataka, which sends 28 parliamentarians to the lower house, will go to polls in two phases on April 26 and May 7.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA dominated the state, winning 25 of 28 seats. This was a crushing defeat for the Congress. The state went from being once totally dominated by Congress to having only one seat in 2019.
However, this time, the saffron party may face a stiff challenge from the Congress, which has been buoyed by its comeback victory in the recent assembly polls. A pre-election study conducted by the Kannada media site Eedina gave Congress the upper hand in the state for the Lok Sabha polls.
Here are the Lok Sabha seats to look out for in Karnataka:
Gulbarga
Umesh Jadhav of the BJP defeated Congress President M Mallikarjun Kharge in the 2019 elections in this SC reserved segment. Kharge was twice elected from this area to the Lok Sabha and is presently the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. This time, the Congress has fielded Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani from the constituency.
Meanwhile, the BJP has retained sitting MP Umesh G Jadhav.
Hassan
The home turf of H D Deve Gowda, the JD(S) leader and former Prime Minister, will once again see his grandson, Prajwal Revanna, who is also a sitting MP, running as the joint candidate of the BJP-JD(S) coalition. The Congress has nominated Shreyas M Patel, the grandson of former Minister G Puttaswamy Gowda, from the seat.
Mandya
The Vokkaliga-dominated seat is noted for the competition between Congress and JD(S). Sumalatha Ambareesh, an actress-turned-politician supported by the BJP, defeated Nikhil Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) in 2019 to win the seat. Nikhil is the grandson of Deve Gowda and the son of former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy.
Sumalatha is seeking re-election on the BJP ticket from this seat. However, the BJP might let JD(S) contest the seat as part of the seat-sharing formula. Former MP C S Puttaraju and Nikhil Kumaraswamy are vying for the ticket.
Bangalore South
Tejasvi Surya, the president of the BJP Youth Wing, defeated Congress politician B K Hariprasad in 2019. This urban seat has been a BJP stronghold for the last 30 years. Congress has fielded Sowmya Reddy, a former Jayanagar MLA and the daughter of Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, from this constituency.
Dharwad
Pralhad Joshi, the four-time MP and current member of the Lok Sabha representing this area is running for office again. In the 2014 and 2019 elections, he overcame Congress leader Vinay Kulkarni by more than one lakh votes. Congress still hasn't decided on a nominee.
Bangalore Rural
In the 2019 elections, the Congress had only one victory, and it came from this seat. Re-entering the race is the current MP, D K Suresh, the brother of state Congress president and Deputy president Minister D K Shivakumar.
The BJP-JD(S) alliance has fielded renowned heart surgeon C N Manjunath, the son-in-law of the late Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, for this Vokkaliga-dominated constituency. Manjunath, who is running on the BJP banner, led the government-run Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research for 17 years until resigning in January of this year.
Mysore
The BJP refused a ticket to incumbent MP Pratap Simha from Mysore and instead selected Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, a scion of the former Mysuru royal family who is contesting the election for the first time.
The Congress has yet to declare a candidate.
Shimoga
K S Eshwarappa, a prominent member of the BJP, said on March 15 that he would run as an independent from Shimoga. He has publicly accused former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and BJP Parliamentary Board members of being the reason his son, K E Kantesh, was denied a ticket to run for the Haveri seat.
Eshwarappa, a former deputy chief minister who oversaw the State unit, will take on B Y Raghavendra, the current MP and Yediyurappa's son.
Here, prominent Kannada actor Shivarajkumar's wife Geetha has been fielded by the Congress. Geetha is the daughter-in-law of the late Dr. Rajkumar, a Kannada thespian, and the daughter of former chief minister S Bangarappa.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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