Lok Sabha Election Results 2019: Will discuss how to correct our mistakes, says Mallikarjun Kharge over Congress poll disaster

Lok Sabha Elections results 2019: Reacting on the disastrous performance of the Congress, senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge today said that, “We accept the result in Gulbarga, the verdict that people gave us, we are accepting it.” He also added that, ”we believe in democracy. We will discuss how to correct our mistakes and how to strengthen the party.” Before the results came, Kharge had dismissed the exit polls predicting return of NDA to power and said actual results would be "satisfactory" for his party. The seven-phase elections to 542 seats of 543-member Lok Sabha ended Sunday. Counting of votes began on Thursday at 8pm.

Just like other parts of country, the BJP in Karnataka is surging way ahead of its rivals as it was leading in 20 constituencies with trends available for 26 out of the 28 seats, the Election Commission said. Ruling coalition partners, the Congress and JDS, which had fought the polls together, were leading in three seats each.

Veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who has never tasted electoral defeat, was trailing in Gulbarga by a margin of 5,754 against Umesh Jadhav of BJP. Former Prime Minister and JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda was leading against BJP's Basavaraj by a wafer thin margin of 65 votes in Tumkur. Gowda's grandsons Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, and Prajwal Revanna were leading in Mandya and Hassan respectively.

Nikhil had established a slender margin of 1509 votes in Mandya against independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh supported by the BJP. Prajwal was leading in Hassan against BJP's A Manju by 28565 votes. Among BJP's candidates who are leading are P C Mohan from Bangalore Central, Tejavi Surya from Bangalore South, Bhagwanth Khuba from Bidar, Ramesh Jigajinagi (Bijapur), Srinivas Prasad (Chamarajanagar), Bachche Gowda (Chikkaballapur), A Narayanaswamy (Chitradurga), Nalin Kumar Kateel (Dakshina Kannada) and G M Siddeshwar (Davangere).

Other BJP candidates leading were Prahlad Joshi in Dharwad, C S Udasi from Haveri, Muniswamy (Kolar), Karadi Snaganna (Koppal), B Y Raghavendra, son of state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa, from Shimoga and Ananth Kumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada).

Congress candidates who were leading include Krishna Byre Gowda against union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda in Bangalore North, D K Suresh in Bangalore Rural and C S Vijayashankar in Mysore.