Kalaburagi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has given an impressive performance in four districts of Hyderabad Karnataka, surpassing all survey reports, which had predicted a clean sweep for the Congress.
In all, it has won nine of the 25 seats in Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadagir and Raichur districts, as against the 12 won by the Congress. This is a big jump for it from its tally of three in 2013. But much of its gain has come from Kalaburagi district, where it has won four of the nine seats, upstaging all calculations. In a big upset, however, its Afzalpur strongman, Malikayya Guttedar, who had won from it six times,was defeated by Congress candidate, M Y Patil.
Meanwhile, the tally of the Congress has fallen from seven to five in Kalaburagi district since 2013. It has suffered a major jolt in Sedam, where Minister for Medical Education, Dr Sharanprakash Patil, who has won three elections from it in the past, lost to Mr Rajkumar Telkur of the BJP.
In Bidar, the Congress has won four of the six seats, one more than in 2013. In the keenly watched Bhalki constituency, Mr Eshwar Khandre of the Congress achieved a hat-trick against Mr Prakash Khandre of the BJP. And as expected in the keenly watched Bidar South constituency, Mr Ashok Kheny of the Congress has lost to Mr Bandeppa Kashempur of the JDS.
