Kalyana Karnataka turns savior for Congress, wins back Mallikarjun Kharge's home turf Gulbarga
Out of the nine seats Congress won in Karnataka, five are from the north Karnataka region, popularly known as the Kalyana Karnataka.
In Karnataka, the Lok Sabha results left mixed feelings for the senior leaders of both Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). While the BJP expressed confidence in winning at least 25 out of 28 seats, it only managed to win 19, six seats less than the 2019 elections. The Congress won nine seats, this time in Karnataka from one seat, which they won in 2019. The grand-old party faced a setback in Bengaluru Rural where its leader DK Suresh lost against BJP’s CN Manjunath.
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Congress cleared the exam with flying colours in Kalyana Karnataka region.
Out of the nine seats Congress won in Karnataka, five are from the north Karnataka region, popularly known as the Kalyana Karnataka. Congress candidates have won from Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Koppal, and Bellary against the BJP candidates. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP swept off the entire north Karnataka region and wiped out Congress from it. This includes Congress party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who lost the election from the Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat to BJP's Umesh Jadhav.
In March this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to kick-start his poll campaign from Gulbarga, Mallikarjun Kharge's home turf. He then launched a scathing attack on the Congress government in Karnataka and alleged that they had made the state an ‘ATM.’ The BJP was indeed very keen on winning this seat once again.
This time, Kharge refrained from contesting the elections, and the Congress party fielded his son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani from Gulbarga against incumbent Umesh Jadhav. Doddamani won with a 27 205-vote majority against the Umesh Jadhav.
In Bidar, Congress’ 26-year-old Sagar Khandre, son of Karnataka minister Eshwar Khandre, won against BJP’s Bhagawanth Khuba with a majority of 1,28,875 votes. He is the youngest candidate to contest in the state.
In Bellary, former Karnataka minister and senior BJP leader B Sree Ramulu faced a defeat against Congress’ E Tukaram. Mining baron Gali Janaradhan Reddy, who merged his political party, was back in the BJP, but it did not bring luck to the saffron party.
The Congress believes that its five guarantees and welfare schemes won it a victory in the Kalyana Karnataka region. The party's vote share also spiked, from 32.11% in 2019 to 45.43% in 2024.