First electoral defeat for Kharge ?

Bengaluru: Veteran Congress Leader M Mallikarjun Kharge, who has not lost an election since the beginning of his political career in 1972, is trailing behind BJP candidate Umesh G. Jadhav by a huge number of votes in Kalaburagi Lok Sabha constituency.

According to the latest counting trends was trailing behind Jadhav by 70,450 votes. Kharge had polled in 3,15,414 votes, compared to Jadhav’s 3,85,864 votes. Jadhav has been consistently maintaining the lead right from the first round of counting.

Jadhav came to the counting centre set up at Gulbarga University campus well before the strong rooms, where the loaded Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were kept.

Jadhav was present during the opening of the strong rooms in the presence of Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer R. Venkatesh Kumar and continued to be in the counting centre. Kharge was nowhere to be seen in the counting centre.