Bengaluru, May 24 : Two Congress stalwarts in Karnataka, including Congress group leader in the 17th Lok Sabha, Mallikarjuna Kharge and former Union minister K H Muniyappa, who never lost any elections in their career, succumbed to the BJP opponents, who were first timers in seeking entry to the Lok Sabha.
Mallikarjuna Kharge, had never lost any elections since his debut to the politics in 1972 and won as many as 11 elections to the Karnataka Assembly and two times for the Lok Sabha, before tasting the first electoral defeat on May 23 from Kalaburagi Lok Sabha seat.
The Congress leader, met his Waterloo at the hands of Umesh Jadhav, a former Congress MLA, and changed colours to the saffron Saffron party, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections by a margin of over one lakh votes.
The BJP leaders including Narendra Modi, had targeted Kharge, before the Elections, had arranged a huge public rally, at Kalaburagi, the bastion of the Congress and succeeded and Umesh Jadhav embered as the giant slayer.
This led to the BJP sweep across all regions of Karnataka taking 25 out of 28 seats and another independent in key Mandya supported by it, Sumalatha win against JD(S) candidate Nikhil K, son of chief minister H D Kumaraswamy. Earlier, in the Assembly elections, JD(S) had won all seven seats in this Lok Sabha seat.
Meanwile, Umesh Jadhav, riding on the strong Modi Wave, delivered a strong blow on congress defeating his one-time mentor Mallikarjuna Kharge, the Congress Party leader in the Lok Sabha till now, by a huge margin of over one lakh votes on Friday.
Similarly, former Union minister and 7-time MP, K H Muniyappa, who also had never lost any elections, was also served a surprise defeat by the BJP by fielding another greenhorn Muniswamy, a Corporator in the Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Muniyappa had lost the seat to the BJP candidate with a margin of over two lakh votes.
Muniyappa was representing the Kolar Lok Sabha reserved for SC, since 1991 had never lost any elections before.
He had also served as Union minister of state for Railways and Surface Transport in the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh.
