Lok Sabha 2019 constituency: BJP has an edge over JD(S) in Karnataka’s Bijapur

Bijapur is one of the 28 parliamentary constituencies in Karnataka, which is reserved for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes.

The Bijapur Lok Sabha seat was once a bastion of the Congress but the Bharatiya Janata Party started getting a hold and increased its influence. The grand old party has won nine out of 16 Lok Sabha elections from Bijapur, the BJP four times and Janata Party twice.

The BJP won from this seat for the first time in 1999 and has held Bijapur since then. Basangouda Patil Yatnal won the seat in In 1999 and 2004 elections and Ramesh Jigajinagi , a Union minister, has represented Bijapur twice in the Lok Sabha since 2009.

The north Karnataka constituency has a dominant Lingayat voters and Dalits and Lambani, a tribal community, are also found in sizeable numbers in Bijapur.

Voting for the Lok Sabha election in Karnataka will be held in two phases on April 18 and April 23. The results will be declared on May 23.

READ: All about Lok Sabha elections 2019

Here are a few details about the Bijapur Lok Sabha seat:

State: Karnataka

Name of the Lok Sabha constituency: Bijapur

Polling date: April 23

2019 candidates: Sunitha Devanand Chavan (JD-S) Ramesh Jigajinagi (BJP)

Sitting MP, party: Ramesh Jigajinagi, BJP

Winning margin in 2014: 69,819

Runner up name, party: Prakash Rathore, Congress

Number of voters in 2014: 966,757

Percentage of votes polled in 2014: 59.58%

Number of women voters in 2014: 774,820

Number of polling booths in 2014: 1,869