With all eyes on the winners of the Lok Sabha elections, we get the losers to tell us what went wrong. Most say they lost because of public apathy
With all eyes on the winners of the Lok Sabha elections, we get the losers to tell us what went wrong. Most say they lost because of public apathy
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BANGALORE SOUTH
Krishna Byre Gowda, Congress: "There was no time to campaign in these constituencies. Fifteen days is not enough to campaign for parliamentary elections. Despite the time factor, I managed to cover all the areas and got many votes. I would like to thank all the voters who voted for me."
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Captain G R Gopinath, Independent: "This time, people didn't come out to vote. For example, out of 22 lakh votes, 4 lakh i.e. 15 per cent of the votes is enough to become an MP. Ananth Kumar got 4 lakh-plus votes and won the elections. My plan was to make more people vote so that I would get at least 15 per cent of the votes. Everyone should come out and vote, especially the youth. This time, many of them sat at home which is not right."
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Prof K E Radhakrishna JD(S): "Parliamentary elections normally see two national parties and a third one. People choose between the national parties, leading to polarisation. The same thing happened in my constituency also, with people choosing either the Congress or BJP. Also, the BJP campaigned aggressively this time because of which people became emotional. It will be a different story in the assembly elections. The candidate can belong to any party but should be a good worker and strong enough to contest.
BANGALORE CENTRAL
Zameer Ahmed Khan, JD(S): "It was purely the people's choice. They have voted for who they thought was the better candidate. People don't vote for the candidate who works for the poor and needy. I had campaigned in eight constituencies and the people's response was very good. I didn't expect them to vote like they did. I didn't expect this type of defeat which was shocking for me."
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H T Sangliana, Congress: "This election was a fight between honesty and corruption and corruption won. My campaign was fine but there was very little time. Another problem was removing names from the rolls. Corrupt officials should be punished for this. I am collecting information on all the names that were deleted from the list. The Election Commission has to take it seriously without fear or favour.u00a0 Also, people were disinterested. Educated people have to be blamed for not voting this time."
BANGALORE RURAL
C P Yogeshwar, BJP: "There are no grassroot BJP workers especially in Ramanagara, Magadi and Kanakapura. We did get a good response during campaigning. In Bangaloreu00a0 Rural, most of the farmers voted for JD(S). In the last assembly elections, we had got 3 lakh votes but this time we got 3.6 lakh. Our share has increased by 60,000.u00a0 The community has also played an important role in these constituencies. If at all repolling takes place, BJP will definitely win here."