Mysuru: In further humiliation for outgoing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah the Congress’s tally has been reduced from eight to three seats in his hometown of Mysuru, while the JDS has increased its from three to five and the BJP has opened its account in the old Mysuru region with three seats.

“A bit of anti-incumbency in a few constituencies against the candidates, and the money factor led to the defeat of the Congress in Mysuru district,” claimed a Congress leader, observing that the people seemed to have gone for fresh faces.





“BJP candidates L Nagendra in Chamaraja and B Harshavardhan in Nanjangud, JDS candidate Ashwin Kumar in T Narsipur and Congress candidate, Dr S Yatindra in Varuna have won for the first time. They were all new faces and Dr Yatindra was educated,” he noted.

Also pointing out that the Congress gave tickets to 30 MLAs although public opinion was against them in an internal party survey, the Congress leader argued that it should have instead given tickets to educated young workers, who had served the party for 10 years or more.

Another Congress leader claimed the party lost the Dalit, and Lingayat votes as Mr Siddarmaiah had declared he would be CM again, and the Dalits felt there was no chance of their community leader occupying the top post, and due to anger over the Lingayat Veerashaiva issue “Also, the Vokkaligas voted for the JDS,” he said.

Besides Mr Siddarmaiah, who lost in Chamundeswari, several Congress MLAs including Dr H C Mahadevappa, Vasu, M K Somshekar, Kalale Keshavmurthy, A K Venkatesh and H P Manjunath lost to either the BJP or JDS by heavy margins. Former Congress veteran, A H Vishwanath, who left the party in a huff, won on a JDS ticket from Hunsur.