The JD(S) has suffered a jolt in its stronghold - Hassan - while the Congress and the BJP strengthened their base. Hassan is the native place of party patriarch and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.
He campaigned extensively, despite his age, in Hassan and that helped the party get back Hassan seat, which was won by the BJP last time. However, it lost both Sakleshpur and Belur to the BJP. And, Arsikere has been won by former JD(S) MLA K.M. Shivalinge Gowda, who joined the Congress before the elections. The Congress had not won any seat in the district in the last elections.
Former Minister and five-time MLA H.D. Revanna retained his Holenarsipur seat by winning with a thin margin of 3,252 votes against Shreyas Patel of the Congress. He faced a tough fight from Mr. Patel, grandson of former Minister late G. Puttaswamy Gowda.
A. Manju, who was a Minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government, is now JD(S) MLA from Arkalgud. He won by a margin of 19,445 votes against Independent candidate M.T. Krishne Gowda, a Congress-rebel candidate.
H.P. Swaroop, who got the JD(S) ticket following differences within the Deve Gowda family, won against BJP MLA Preetham Gowda in Hassan by a margin of 7,854 votes. In Shravanabelgola C.N. Balakrishna of the JD(S) has won for the third time in a row. He won with a margin of 6,645 votes against M.A. Gopalaswamy of the Congress.
The BJP’s district unit president H.K. Suresh won by a margin of 7,736 votes against former Minister B. Shivaramu of the Congress in Belur. BJP national president J.P. Nadda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Belur as part of the election campaign. Similarly, Cement Manju of the BJP defeated former Minister and six-time MLA H.K. Kumaraswamy in Sakleshpur by a margin of 2,056 votes.
In Arsikere, Shivalinge Gowda of the Congress defeated N.R. Santhosh of the JD(S) by a margin of 20,177 votes. Mr. Santhosh was an aspirant for the BJP ticket. He joined the JD(S) after the BJP denied him the ticket.
The poor performance of the JD(S) shows that the party has lost its formidable position once it enjoyed in the district. One of the reasons, as pointed out by local leaders and party workers, is that a large section of people are disappointed with the fact that only Mr. Revanna’s family members continue to get opportunities in politics. Mr. Revanna and his two sons hold positions in the district. While Prajwal Revanna is a Lok Sabha member, Suraj Revanna is an MLC. His family wanted Bhavani Revanna to contest for Hassan seat. However, it did not happen with the intervention of former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
