Anant Kumar Hegde’s highest victory margin surprises many

Karwar: His scale of victory took even BJP workers in Uttara Kannada by surprise as Mr Anant Kumar Hegde won by a record margin of 4,79,649 votes, the highest in the state, these Lok Sabha poll.

Thanks to the divided opposition, and failure of the Congress and JD(S) leaders to put up a strong fight, Mr Hegde has entered the Lok Sabha for the sixth time! He had won the 2014 election from the constituency by a margin of 1.40 lakh votes, but his highest margin was in 2004 when he won by  1.72 lakh votes. He has now not only rewritten his own record in Uttara Kannada, but also created a new record for the state.

While BJP workers had predicted he would win  by over two lakh votes,  this margin was achieved by 11 am! By 10 am the margin between Mr Hegde and Mr Asnotikar was 1.08 lakh and continued to increase as the counting continued. By 11 am, it had increased to 2.02 lakh and by 11.55 am  to 3.03 lakh. Ultimately when the result was declared, he had won by  4.79 lakh votes.

In Udupi-Chikkamagalur too, Ms Shobha Karandlaje of the BJP won by  3,49, 599 votes and in Dakshina Kannada, Mr Nalin Kumar Kateel won by  2,74,621 votes.  

Seeing these mammoth victories, not only BJP, but also Congress and JD(S) leaders give the credit to a Modi wave. "When there is a wave in favour of the BJP all of us become helpless,"  tweeted Udupi JD(S) candidate, Pramod Madhwaraj.  

"It was a Modi wave, which defeated the Congress everywhere. Though the people did not support  BJP candidates in many constituencies, they voted to bring Modi to power," said a senior Congress leader.

"In Uttara Kannada constituency there was hardly any competition for Hegde. And after the coalition declared Asnotikar as the JD(S) candidate,  everybody knew that Hegde would easily win," he added.