As counting progresses in the high-stakes Karnataka Assembly elections, all eyes are on senior Lingayat leaders Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi, who defected from the BJP to the Congress after the saffron party denied them tickets.
Shettar, former Karnataka chief minister is currently trailing from the Hubbali-Dharwad Central constituency, where he was pitted against the BJP's Mahesh Tenginakai. Shettar, a six-term MLA from the constituency, has a loyal following in this base and it was speculated his exit might affect the BJP's campaign in this segment. As per trends on the website of the Election Commission of India at 10:30am, Shettar is trailing behind Tenginakai by over 7,000 votes.
However, Savadi, contesting from Athani, has an early lead of over 17,000 votes as of now. He is being pitted against the BJP's Mahesh Kumathalii, who ironically was the Congress candidate against Savadi in the 2018 elections. In a fiercely-contested in 2018, Kumathalli defeated Savadi by over 2,000 votes in 2018.
The single-phase election to the 224-member Karnataka State Legislative Assembly on Wednesday saw a turnout of nearly 70 per cent of voters, in a process that was "largely peaceful".
As per early trends, the Congress maintains a slight edge over the BJP with the former leading in 117 seats.
