Dr Manjunath wrests Bangalore Rural from Suresh

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: BJP candidate Dr CN Manjunath proved to be a giant killer on Tuesday as he defeated incumbent Congress MP DK Suresh by a massive margin of 2,69,647 votes.

It was a battle of two prominent Vokkaliga families as Manjunath is the son-in-law of JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda and brother-in-law to party state president HD Kumaraswamy. The noted cardiologist is also the brother of the JD(S) MLA from Shravanabelagola in Hassan district CN Balakrishna.

Suresh is the brother of Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar. Manjunath polled a mammoth 10,79,002 votes while Suresh managed 8,09,355 votes. The defeat is seen as a big setback for Suresh as he had held Bangalore Rural for 10 straight years.

He had even withstood the saffron wave in 2019 when he was the lone Congress Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka. BJP has minimal presence in Bangalore Rural, a seat located in the Vokkaliga heartland. There appears to have been a smooth transfer of votes from the JD(S) to the BJP in the seat.

There is also a sense that this was a negative vote against Suresh. Manjunath was beset with a number of namesakes in the candidates list. It’s an old trick that opposing parties use to confuse voters and thereby siphon votes away from the original candidate.

The one that gave Dr Manjunath the most trouble was Manjunatha CN, a native of Channarayapatna in Hassan district. His father's name is Nanjundappa. Dr Manjunath's father's name is Nanjappa. The photographs of both candidates show them in a black suit and tie.

Other candidates with similar names included Manjunath K from Papareddypalya, N Manjunatha from Rajajinagar and Manjunath C from Shakti Garden in Mudalapalya in Bengaluru. However, all of these candidates didn’t stop Dr Manjunath from tallying a lead of well over 2.5 lakhs.

Vote for candidate not party: DKS

Shivakumar said that the voters had cast their ballot for Dr Manjunath rather than the BJP. “Our tally has gone up from one to nine in the state. We were expecting 14 seats. I congratulate Dr Manjunath on his victory in Bengaluru Rural constituency.

It is an individual victory rather than a party’s victory, but we had not expected such a big margin for him in Bengaluru Rural. My brother had done good work and there was no anti-incumbency. People have voted for Dr Manjunath to give him a chance,” he said.

“We can’t question the intelligence of the voters, we accept the verdict. We were expecting many more seats in the state. We thought the guarantees would help us. We will deliberate on the results and try to find why voters haven’t supported as we expected,” he added.