Karnataka polls: Swaroop Prakash of JD(S) snatches Hassan seat from BJP

Janata Dal (Secular) leader Swaroop Prakash on Saturday snatched the Hassan seat from the BJP’s Preetham J Gowda, securing a victory by a margin of 8,895 votes.

The seat witnessed a neck-and-neck fight with the JD(S) candidate bagging 84,005 votes while the BJP’s Gowda polled 75,110 votes. Congress candidate Banavase Rangaswamy was in third place with 4241 votes.

In 2018, Gowda had broken the JD(S) monopoly on the seat, defeating H S Prakash by a margin of about 13,006 votes.