BJP leads in 17 seats across Karnataka

Bangalore, May 16 (IANS) Initial trends in Karnataka showed the BJP leading in at least 17 of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.

"Of the 26 seats for which trends are available, the BJP is ahead in 17, Congress in seven and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in two," a poll official told IANS.

In Bangalore South, BJP's five-time winner Ananth Kumar was leading over Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

In Bangalore North, BJP's former chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda was leading over C. Narayana Swamy by around 35,000 votes.

In Bangalore Rural, D.K. Suresh of the Congress was ahead of P. Muniraju Gowda of the BJP by over 8,828 votes.

BJP was leading in 16 other seats - Bagalkot, Belgaum, Bellary, Bidar, Bijapur,, Chikkballapur, Dakshina Kannada, Davangere, Dharwad, Haveri, Koppal, Mysore, Raichur, Shimoga, Udupi-Chikmaglur, Uttara Kannda.

The ruling Congress was leading in six other seats - Chamarajanagar, Chikkodi, Gulbarga, Kolar and Tumkur.

The JD-S was leading in Hassan with former prime minister and party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda over A. Manju of Congress, while in Mandya, JD-S candidate C.S. Puttaraju ahead of Ramya of the Congress.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was trailing behind national and regional parties in majority of the seats though it contested in all the 28 seats like the BJP and the Congress.

In Chikkballapur, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas M. Veerappa Moily was trailing behind BJP's B.N. Bache Gowda.

BJP's former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was leading over Manjunath Bhandary of the Congress in Shimoga by over 87,800 votes.