The five guarantees rolled out by the Congress in Karnataka did not translate into victory for the party as the Opposition BJP-Janata Dal Secular alliance won or led in 19 of the 28 seats.

Although the Congress bettered its 2019 tally of just one seat by comfortably leading or winning nine this time, it was still seen as a poor show since the party had expected to win half the seats.

Moreover, Congress candidate D.K. Suresh — the only man to win in 2019 — lost his Bengaluru Rural seat to cardiologist and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s son-in-law C.N. Manjunath who contested on a BJP ticket.

The defeat of Suresh has come as a question mark on the capability of his elder brother and deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar. For long considered the impregnable fortress of the DK brothers, as they are called, the defeat by over 2,60,000 votes to a political novice has come as a big blow for Shivakumar himself.

Suresh conceded defeat, saying he accepted the people’s verdict. “I bow before the people’s verdict. I urge our party workers not to lose confidence and accept victory and defeat in the same spirit.”

His brother, Shivakumar, later told the media that he never expected Suresh to lose. “He has done very good work in the constituency and there was no anti-incumbency,” said Shivakumar, adding he saw it as a victory of an individual and not a party. “We had just one seat in Karnataka, but have nine seats now although we had expected 14,” he said, adding the party would scrutinise the performance.

Rape-accused Prajwal Revanna, who is in judicial custody after being arrested, lost the Hassan seat to his Congress rival, Shreyas Patel, by 42,649 votes.

It was a revenge of sorts for Patel who had lost to Prajwal’s father, H.D. Revanna, in the 2023 Assembly polls from Holenarasipura.

Prajwal had won the seat in 2019 after his grandfather, Deve Gowda, passed down the seat he won multiple times to launch his grandson.

The BJP maintained its chokehold on coastal Karnataka, Bengaluru and a significant number of north Karnataka segments. But the Congress made deep inroads in the north of the state, for long considered a pocket borough of the BJP.