Karnataka election results 2023: Shivakumar wins Kanakapura seat by a huge margin

Karnataka Congress Chief D K Shivakumar won the Kanakapura assembly seat by a huge margin. He polled 1,42,156 votes as compared to 20,561 for JD (U)'s B Nagaraju and 19,602 BJP's R Ashoka. Nick-named as 'Kanakapura Rock', he has now won the seat eight times. He has been winning the seat from 1989 to till date.

Shivakumar is seen as a contender for the post of chief minister along with former CM Siddaramaiah, who currently serves as the leader of the opposition in the state assembly.

The constituency has a significant population of Vokkaliga community voters. Shivakumar is also a leader from the Vokkaliga community of the Old Mysore region, where the JD(S) enjoys considerable clout. BJP has fielded the current revenue minister R. Ashok from the seat.


Ahead of the results, DK Shivakumar on Friday claimed there is a huge wave for his party in the state, while underlining that INC president Mallikarjun Kharge and his predecessor Sonia Gandhi will take a decision on the chief ministerial post if the Congress is voted to power.
Speaking about "power sharing" between him and Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar told mediapersons: "The decision of Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi is final on this matter."

He further said: "I don't have a belief in exit polls. According to me, we will win 141 seats. Our surveys have collected more samples than the exit poll agencies."

Commenting on Minister for Revenue R. Ashoka's statement that this time the BJP would win the cup, Shivakumar said: "Let him keep the cup and hat, whatever (he wishes)."

The single-phase election to the 224-member Karnataka State Legislative Assembly was held on May 10. It saw a voter turnout of 73%, the highest in many decades. In the last Assembly polls held in 2018, as much as 72.36 per cent of the electorate cast their ballot. This time, a total of 5.31 crore electors were eligible to cast their vote in 58,545 polling stations across the state where 2,615 candidates are in the fray.