Shimoga Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate BY Raghavendra defeated Congress candidate Geetha Shivarajkumar with a margin of 2,43,715 votes. Raghavendra won 7,78,721 (56.54 per cent) while Shivarajkumar managed 5,35,006 votes (38.85 per cent). Shimoga, one of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies of Karnataka, is one of the crucial battlegrounds of the state. Shimoga went to polls in the third phase of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 on May 7 and the counting of votes is underway.
It is a GENERAL category seat and comprises eight Assembly segments - Shimoga Rural, Bhadrawati, Shimoga, Tirthahalli, Shikaripura, Sorab, Sagar and Byndoor. Although the Congress has won it 11 times, the seat has emerged as a stronghold of the BJP - considered as the fortress of former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa's family.
Shimoga Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: Key candidates in the fray
Out of 19 candidates, two key candidates competing for the Shimoga parliamentary seat are BJP's BY Raghavendra and Congress candidate Geetha Shivarajkumar. BY Raghavendra, the son of former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa, won the constituency three times, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, 2018 by-elections after Yediyurappa vacated the seat, and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. On the other hand, Shivarajkumar, the daughter of late former CM BS Bangarappa and wife of Kannada superstar Dr Shivarajkumar, who rode on the popularity of the guarantee schemes of the ruling party in the state.
The BJP faced a rebellion when KS Eshwarappa decided to contest as an independent candidate in Shimoga. The former Karnataka deputy Chief Minister who previously served as the party's state unit president, blamed the state BJP president B Y Vijayendra and Yediyurappa for denying the ticket for his son in the Haveri constituency. Eshwarappa, along with Yediyurappa and the late H N Ananth Kumar, is credited for building the BJP from the grassroots in Karnataka. He was disqualified from the BJP for six years.
Shimoga Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: Date of polls
The constituency went to Lok Sabha elections in the third phase of the general elections on May 7.
Shimoga Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Voter turnout
The voter turnout in Karnataka for the third phase was 71.84 per cent. Out of 28 constituencies, 14 constituencies went for polling in this phase. Shimoga recorded a voter turnout of 78.33 per cent on May 7.
Shimoga Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Date of results
The results of the Shimoga Lok Sabha Elections were declared on June 4.
Shimoga Lok Sabha Elections 2024: What happened in 2019 and 2014?
In the 2019 general elections, Raghavendra won the seat with a margin of 2,23,360 votes by defeating S Madhubangarappa of JD(S). Raghavendra won 7,29,872 votes with a share of 56.84 per cent, and Madhubangarappa got 5,06,512 votes with a share of 39.46 per cent. The constituency had witnessed 76.40 per cent voter turnout in 2019. A total of 13 candidates had contested in this constituency.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BS Yediyurappa defeated Congress candidate Manjunath Bhandary with a margin of 3,62,808 votes. Yeddiyurappa won 606,216 (53.69 per cent) while Bhandary garnered 2,42,911 votes (21.52 per cent). Yediyurappa vacated the seat to become the Chief Minister after the 2018 Assembly elections, and his son won the by-elections in the constituency.
