Congress sees major increase in Karnataka vote share amid close fight in several seats

Getting around 45 per cent of the votes counted till noon Tuesday, the Congress in Karnataka looks to be on track to significantly improve their vote share compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, in which they registered just 32 per cent.

However, the BJP-JD(S) alliance looks to be on course to win more of Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha seats than the Congress, with the BJP currently leading in 16 seats, the JD(S) in two and the Congress in 10.

The BJP, which had 51 per cent vote share in 2019, has registered 44 per cent till noon on counting day this time. The JD(S), which had registered 10 per cent of the votes while contesting seven seats in 2019 in an alliance with the Congress, has registered eight per cent votes so far while contesting three seats in alliance with the BJP this time.

As many as nine Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka are witnessing a close fight between the Congress and the BJP-JD(S) alliance, including the Gulbarga seat represented by the family of Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Clear trends were being witnessed in only 12 seats, where candidates had established clear leads in the range of one lakh votes.

The candidates with the biggest margin of more than 2 lakh votes were JD(S) leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy in Mandya, BJP’s Tejasvi Surya in Bangalore South, and Vishweshwar Hedge Kaggeri of the BJP in Uttara Kannada.

The BJP also looked poised to win eight of the nine seats with margins currently in the range of 1 lakh.

These seats are that of B Y Raghavendra in Shimoga, Yaduveer Wodeyar in Mysore, Brajesh Chouta in Dakshina Kannada, Srinivas Poojary in Udupi Chikmagalur, Pralhad Joshi in Dharwad, V Somanna in Tumkur, Dr C N Manjunath in Bangalore Rural, and Shobha Karandlaje in