Karnataka polls: 42 out of 58 candidates lost deposit in Dakshina Kannada district

MANGALURU: Over 80 percent of the candidates who contested the assembly election in Dakshina Kannada district have lost deposit. Except BJP and Congress candidates, all others who contested in the eight assembly segments have lost their deposit. 

While the candidates of two national parties managed to net more than 95 percent of the total 17.11 lakh votes polled in the district, the others had to scramble for less than 5 percent votes. Worse, only three non-BJP and non-Congress candidates  crossed the 2,000-mark. The others are in the 1,000  club - Sumathi Hegde,  JD(S) candidate from Belthangady, polled 1,612 votes, while  Jeevan  Krishna Shetty (Moodbidri, JD-S)  polled 1,838 votes, Balakrishna  Poojary (Bantwal, JD-S) polled 713, Raghu (Sullia, BSP candidate) polled 1,472,  IC Kailas Gowda (Puttur-JDS) polled 1,424. All CPI (M) and JD(S) candidates failed to make any impact in the district in any of the constituencies. 

In 2013, JD(S) had garnered over 20,000 votes in Moodbidri. While the vote shares of these candidates was miserably low, hovering around 1 percent , just one candidate  district managed to touch 2.47 percent, the highest from among those with the third highest vote percentage in their respective constituencies - K Ashraf, JD(S) candidate from Mangaluru polled 3,682 votes.  While, Sunil Bajal (Mangaluru South CPI-M), managed 2,329 votes.

Another shining star in the third highest category in the district is the Mangaluru North candidate for CPI(M) Muneer Katipalla who secured 1.42 percent  of the votes. Despite the party not fielding a candidate in the constituency in the past three elections, Muneer garnered support without a predecessor. In Bantwal, NOTA was voted the third highest with a 0.52 vote percentage. This put the MEP, Lok Awaz and an independant candidate behind it, with its 946 votes out of 1,81,609.