BJP turncoat Jagadish Shettar set to lose Hubballi-Dharwad assembly seat

BENGALURU: Jagadish Shettar, the former Karnataka chief minister, who switched over to the Congress party after being denied a ticket for the assembly polls, is set to face defeat in the prestigious Hubballi-Dharwad Central constituency.
He is trailing BJP's Mahesh Tenginkai by over 35,000 votes with only a few rounds of counting left.
The counting which began at 8am saw the BJP candidate maintaining a lead throughout.
Having secured victories on a BJP ticket in the 2008, 2013, and 2018 elections, Shettar was confident of winning the seat on Congress ticket.
The constituency has seen 64.18 per cent voter turnout.
Earlier known as Hubballi Rural, the constituency became Hubballi-Dharwad Central after delimitation in 2008.
Shettar won from Hubballi Rural in his first attempt in 1994 by defeating Basavaraj Bommai who had contested on a Janata Dal ticket.
The counting for the assembly elections in Karnataka is under way with Congress crossing the majority mark. The party is leading in over 130 seats in the 224-member assembly.