BJP candidates Shobha Karandlaje is leading in Udupi-Chikkamagalur, Nalin Kumar Kateel in Dakshina Kannada and Anant Kumar Hegde in Uttara Kannada constituencies by large margins
Mangaluru: BJP candidates are leading in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada constituencies in Karnataka. Meanwhile, Uttara Kannada candidate Anant Kumar Hegde has taken a lead of over 1 lakh votes against Anand Asnotikar of the JD(S).
Sitting MP from Dakshina Kannada, BJP candidate Nalin Kumar Kateel is leading by 30,000 votes. Udupi candidate Shobha Karandlaje leads by a margin of over 25,000 votes against the Congress candidate contesting on a JD(S) ticket, Pramod Madhwaraj.
Pramod Madhwaraj had lost the Assembly election against BJP candidate Raghupathi Bhat in May 2018.
BJP has made the coastal area its stronghold as all three Nalin Kumar Kateel, Shobha Karandlaje and Anant Kumar Hegde are the sitting MPs from their respective constituencies.
In 2014, Dakshina Kannada candidate Nalin Kumar Kateel had won the Lok Sabha election against Congress's B Janardhana Poojary by a margin of 1,43,709 votes.
Likewise, Shobha Karandlaje had won against Congress' K Jayaprakash Hegde by a 1,50,000-vote margin.
In Uttara Kannada, Anant Kumar Hegde had won the election by a margin of 1,40,000 votes against Congress candidate Prashanth R Deshpande.
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