MANGALORE: The state assembly election result has proved that voters in Dakshina Kannada have not looked beyond national parties Congress and BJP.
None of the parties other than Congress and BJP could touch six digits in votes polled in favour of them in DK. The Congress stood first in the district by bagging 5,48,809 of the 11,18,025 votes polled.
The district has 15,01,024 voters. While the Congress secured 36.56% of the total votes, with 4,58,247 votes polled in its favour, BJP bagged 30.52% votes. JD(S), which stands in the third place with 45,898 votes in the district, could attract only 3.05 per cent voters. JD(S) candidate Amarnath Shetty got 20,481 votes in Moodbidri constituency.
SDPI, which fielded seven candidates in the district, could bag only 1.76 per cent votes (26,450), and KJP, which fielded candidates in all the constituencies, could bag 0.74 per cent of votes (11,181 votes). CPM had fielded candidates in three constituencies and got a vote share of just 0.75 per cent.
Khader opponents together could bag only 6.06% votes
In Mangalore, Congress candidate and sitting MLA UT Khader had to face 10 candidates from his own community. There were apprehensions that Muslim vote would be divided and this would lead to Khader’s defeat.
However, Khader won against his BJP rival Chandrahas Ullal with a margin of 29,111 votes.
The vote share of 10 Muslim candidates, including JD(S) candidate Abdul Aziz Malar, JD(U) candidate Hameed Ullal and eight independents, was just 10,207. Muslim candidates, who contested against Khader here, could bag only 6.06 per cent of the total votes polled.
