Forging way ahead of the Congress, BJP in Karnataka was leading in 16 of the 28 lok Sabha constituencies and its principal opponent in 10, counting trends showed.
JDS was leading in Hassan where the party supremo and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda was racing ahead of his Congress rival, A Manju.His son, H.D. Kumaraswamy however, was facing defeat against his Congress rival, M. Veerappa Moily. He was a poor third, trailing behind BJP candidate, Bachche Gowda.
BJP strongman, B S Yeddyurappa had established an impressive margin of over 1.3 lakh votes against Congress candidate, Manjunath Bhandary in his stronghold of Shimoga. Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge was ahead of his rival by more than 10,200 votes in Gulbarga.
State BJP President, Prahlad Joshi had left behind his Congress rival Vinay Kulkarni by more than 25,000 votes in Dharwad.Former Union Minister Ananth Kumar has taken a comfortable lead over his Congress rival, Nandan Nilekani in Bangalore South.
Former Chief Minister, D.V. Sadananda Gowda was leading in Bangalore North.Former Chief Minister N Dharam Singh (Bidar) and former KPCC chief B Janardhan Poojary (Dakshina Kannada) were also
trailing, as the counting of votes progressed.BJP's lead was more or less well spread across different regions of the state as reports came in.