Mangaluru: The BJP washed away the Congress in all three coastal districts of Karnataka, winning 16 of the 19 seats here, and making a clean sweep of Udupi district's five assembly constituencies,
The saffron party succeeded in making a comeback in Dakshina Kannada by winning seven of its eight constituencies, defeating Congress by not less than 15,000 votes in all of them. In Uttara Kannada too the party created history by winning four of the six seats.
The results these elections are unprecedented on the as this is the first time the BJP has seen such success in all three districts. The party not only succeeded in winning its traditional constituencies, but also the minority strongholds of Bhatkal, Bantwal, Mangaluru City North, Mangaluru City South, Belthangady, Byndoor and Kumta.
The best example of the BJP-Modi wave was seen in Karwar constituency, where Roopali, a first -timer defeated two former MLAs, Congress candidate and sitting MLA, Sathish Sail and former Minister and JD(S) candidate, Ananth Asnotikar. In fact Mr Sail was pushed to third position.
The only Congressmen , who succeeded in retaining their seats were UT Khader in Mangaluru, R V Deshpande in Haliyal and Shivaram Hebbar in Yellapur.
While the Congress seemed shocked by the results, the BJP leaders celebrated.
Mr Rajesh Naik of Bantwal was the other giant killer ,defeating district in-charge minister B. Ramanath Rai by a margin of 15,971 votes.
