BJP sweeps all seats of Coastal Karnataka but three; detailed report

Bhatkal 15 May 2018: (Bhatkallys News Bureau) In an unexpected turn of event the Bharatiya Janata Party swept all the seats but three in the three coastal districts of Karnataka i.e: Uttara Kannada, Dakshin Kannada and Udupi. On a total of 19 seats in the coastal districts the Congress could only retain Haliyal (RV Deshpande), Yellapur (Arabail Hebbar Shivaram) and Mangaluru-Ullal (UT Khader) and lost all the other seats to BJP including Karwar (Satish Sail) Bhatkal (Mankal Vaidya) Udupi (Pramod Madhawraj) Mangaluru North (Mohiuddin Bava) and Ramanath Rai (Bantwal), while JD(s) could not bag any seat in the three coastal districts. Uttara Kannda District Minister RV Deshpande and Arabail Hebbar Shivram retained their respective constituencies but the BJP damaged the Congress' morale by defeating it in other four constituencies of the district. In Uttara Kannada district Roopali Santosh Naik polled 60,339 votes in Karwar constituency to beat Anant Asnotikar (JDS) by a margin of 14,064 votes, Anant polled 46,275 votes while sitting MLA Satish Sail stood at third position with 45,071 votes. In Bhatkal, in a one-on-one contest BJP's Sunil Naik defeated Congress MLA Mankal Vaidya by a margin of 5930 votes. Sunil polled 83172 votes while Mankal Vaidya polled 77242 votes in Bhatkal-Honnavar constituency. In Sirsi Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri polled 70,595 votes to outpower Bhimanna Naik of Congress who could only fetch 53,134 votes. In Kumta, Dinakar Shetty of BJP polled 59,392 votes while sitting MLA Sharada Shetty could only poll 26,642 votes for herself. The only two constituencies retained by Congress remained Haliyal, represented by senior party leader RV Deshpande and Yellapur, represented by Arabail Hebbar Shivram. RV Deshpande retained his constituency by polling 61,577 votes while his rival Sunil Hegde of BJP polled 56,437 votes in Haliyal constituency. Arabail in Yellapur polled 66,290 polls to defeat BJP's Virbhadragouda Patil by a close margin of 1483 votes. Udupi District In Udupi district the BJP whitewashed Congress party by winning all the five seats of the district including that of Pramod Madhawraj. In Udupi consituency District in-charge minister Pramod Madhawraj lost to BJP's Raghupati Bhat who polled 84,946 votes against Pramod's 72,902 votes. In Karkal, BJP's Sunil Kumar bagged 91,245 votes to beat Gopal Bhandary of Congress who polled 48,679 votes. In Kundapur, Srinivas Shetty of BJP bagged a whopping 103434 votes to comfortably beat Rakesh Malli of Congress who polled only 47,029 votes. In Byndoor, Sukumar Shetty polled 96,029 votes to defeat Congress' Gopala Poojary who polled 71,636 votes in the constituency. In Kapu, Lalaji Mendon, fetched 75,893 votes to outnumber Congress' Vinay Kumar's 63,967 votes in the constituency. Dakshin Kannada The voters of Dakshin Kannada proved the political experts rights who had predicted that the BJP will ride upon the Hindutva card in the region as the local are the most vulnerable to the religious politics. Congress could only retain one seat in the district thanks to Minister of Food and Public Distribution who retained his constituency Managaluru-Ullal, while political stelwarts like Ramanath Rai disappointed the party with their performances. In Bantwal, Minister Ramanath Rai was defeated by BJP's Rajesh Naik with a comprehensive margin of 15,971 votes. Rai polled 81,831 votes while Rajesh naik polled 97,802 votes. In Belthangady, Harish Poonja defeated Congress' Vasanth Bangera by polling 98,417 votes against 75,443 votes polled by Vasanth. In Mangaluru South, Vedavyasa Kamat of BJP polled 86,545 votes to defeat JR Lobo of Congress who polled 70,470 votes in the constituency. In Mangaluru North, Dr. Bharath Shetty bagged 98,648 votes against Congress' Mohiuddin Bava's 72000 votes. In Puttur, Sanjeeva Matandoor of BJP defeated Shakuntala Shetty of Congress. They polled 90,073 and 70,596 votes respectively. In Sullia, Angara S of BJP with 95,205 votes outpowered Dr. B Raghu of Congress who polled 69,137 in the constituency. In Moodabidri, Umanatha Kotian of BJP forced Congress candidate Abhyachandra out of contest by polling 87,444 votes against Abhyachandra's 57,645 votes. In the only constituency that was retained by Congress party, Minister UT Khader defeated Santhosh Kumar of BJP comprehensively by polling 80,813 votes against Santhosh's 61,074 votes. (Bhatkallys News Bureau/ Ismail Zaorez)