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Mangaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party has retained Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency for the ninth consecutive term with Capt Brijesh Chowta winning the segment by a margin of 1,49,208 votes.

Capt Brijesh Chowta secured 7,64,132 (53.97%) votes and Congress candidate Padmaraj R Poojary secured 6,14,924 (43.43%) votes. Captain Brijesh Chowta was leading with 8,514 votes in the first round of counting and maintained the lead in all the rounds of counting.

The vote share of other candidates are Kanthappa Alangar (Bahujan Samaj Party 4232 votes (0.3%), Durga Prasad (Karunada Sevakara Paksha 2592 (0.18%), independent candidates Supreeth Kumar Poojary Kateel (1901 votes( 0.13%), Maxim Pinto (1690 votes (0.12%), Deepak Rajesh Coelho (976 votes 0.07%), Prajakeeya Manohara (Uttama Prajaakeeya Party 971 (0.07%) and Ranjini M (Karnataka Rashtra Samithi 776 (0.05%).

Speaking after the victory, Capt Brijesh Chowta said "this is the victory of party workers and Hindutva."

Reiterating his commitment to Hindutva and development, he said “I will work for the comprehensive development of the district. Dakshina Kannada is the land of truth, faith,  and justice. “I consider this as a victory of faith, truth and justice. I will seek  the guidance of party leaders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the development of the district.

The results has proved that DK is a strong forte of the BJP. “We were more cautious as the Congress and SDPI had come together in the election. It has also proved that the people of the district support development and do not support those engage in dividing the minds.

“I will work towards the nine focus areas that I had mentioned it in my manifesto —Nava yuga nava patha. I will work towards fulfilling the aspirations and dreams of the people in the district,” he added.

To a query on election on the basis of castes, he said “BJP did not seek vote on the basis of caste. We had discussed on Hindutva, social justice, poverty and uplifting the poor. We faced the election on the basis of nationalism,” he clarified.

On decline in the margin, he said," Congress and SDPI had worked together in the election. The party will introspect on the reason for decline in the margin.” Thanking the BJP workers, he said amid scorching sun the party workers have worked for the victory of the BJP.

DK district BJP president Sathish Kumpala said that the party workers and leaders had joined hands and worked continuously during the election campaign.

“The enlightened voters of Dakshina Kannada have given a major contribution to the party by electing our candidate again. As the district president of the party, I extend my sincere thank to all voters as well as party workers. We have a major challenge ahead as an organization. The newly elected MP will work for strengthening the party and also take up development works for the district.”

Inspite of SDPI, CPM, Congress coming together, the voters have given us clear mandate, he said.

The BJP has been winning the DK constituency since 1991. After 1991, the constituency was retained by the BJP with Dhananjay Kumar winning four consecutive terms in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999. Later, DV Sadananda Gowda won in 2004 and Nalin Kumar Kateel won hat trick from 2008 till 2019.

In the 2019 election, the vote share of Nalin Kumar Kateel stood at 57.57 per cent (7,74,285 votes) and Mithun Rai of Congress secured 4,99,664 votes (37.15 per cent). In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP’s vote share stood at 53.23 against 41.33 per cent of the Congress. In 2009 election, it was 49.16 per cent for BJP against 45.18 per cent of the Congress.

Capt Chowta managed bag a huge share of postal ballots . Out of 8,773 postal ballots in the constituency, Capt Chowta secured 4,002 votes while 2,821 votes were polled in favour of Poojary. Meanwhile, 1,741 postal ballots were rejected in the constituency.

An Indian expatriate working in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk, has been cleared of allegations related to a hacker's scam and is now permitted to return to India for leave. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, hails from the outskirts of Mangaluru city in Karnataka.

Employed by the Greek company for nearly three years, he had been diligently performing his duties. On November 15, 2022, he received a call from an individual pretending to be an officer from the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry. The “officer” informed him that his Iqama (Residency Permit) was about to expire and sent him an OTP (One-Time Password) to validate it. Trusting the caller’s identity, the man accepted the OTP and continued his work without issues until he planned to take a vacation.

On September 30, 2023, while traveling from Tabuk to Jeddah International Airport for his flight to India, he was contacted by his company and instructed to return to Tabuk because his exit re-entry had not been processed due to a case against his Iqama.

Upon his return, he discovered that SAR 17,000 had been withdrawn from a citizen’s bank account through his account. The man had no knowledge of this transaction and did not have any money in his account. Recalling the OTP incident from a year earlier, he realized he had been a victim of a cyber-scam.

A case was filed against him at the concerned police station, and he made a clear statement to the police about the incident. After an investigation lasting more than nine months, he was exonerated and is now allowed to go on leave to India.

The man expressed his gratitude to all those who supported him during the ordeal, including the authorities, his company, and social workers advocate P. A. Hameed Padubidri and Naufal Mulky for their unwavering support and constant follow-up.

This incident serves as a stark warning to other expatriates: be cautious and vigilant against unknown callers and unsolicited requests for sensitive information.

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress in Karnataka has improved its tally by winning nine seats while the BJP and JD(S) combine emerged victorious in 19 constituencies in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP won 17 seats and the JD(S) secured victory in two constituencies.

The BJP, on its own, won 17 seats, making it a happy camper as Karnataka voters continued their trend (since 2004) of giving the saffron party the highest number of Lok Sabha seats in the state. The JD(S) won two out of the three seats it contested.

Out of nine seats won by the Congress, five are in Kalyana Karnataka region. Interestingly, in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, during Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s first term, the Congress won nine seats while the BJP won 17 and JD(S) two seats.

Congress, which stormed to power with a huge majority in the Assembly polls last year, was bullish on winning more than 10 seats, which it did last in 1999.

“We didn’t get the result we expected. We wanted 15-20 seats. Our calculations went wrong,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said. His deputy DK Shivakumar, who is also Karnataka Congress president, was more candid. “We expected more seats - 14 to 15 - because of the guarantees. We expected more votes for the work we’ve done. That didn’t happen,” he said.

Admittedly, the Congress’ guarantees, around which the party had designed its Lok Sabha poll campaign in Karnataka, failed to yield the desired electoral benefits.

Also, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar faced setbacks as Congress lost Mysore (CM’s native) and Bangalore Rural (where BJP defeated Shivakumar's brother DK Suresh).

But Congress has something to cheer about. Besides winning nine seats, the Congress’ vote share in Karnataka is up from 31.88% to 45.34%.

The result came in handy for the BJP to go after the ruling Congress. “The Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar government was arrogant for having 136 MLAs. People have taught them a lesson. Neither their MLAs nor the guarantees helped Congress,” Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka said.

Faced with an aggressive Congress, the BJP got the help it needed from the JD(S). Going by the result, the BJP-JD(S) alliance worked well on the ground as both parties gave their votes to each other.

The JD(S), struggling for survival after its near-rout in the Assembly polls last year, will view the Lok Sabha result as the battery it needed to recharge. “The result is the people’s reply to those who arrogantly chided JD(S) for having only 19 MLAs,” JD(S) state president HD Kumaraswamy said.