 "BJP retains strong hold in Karnataka")
An upbeat BJP Friday retained its hold in Karnataka, winning eight Lok Sabha seats and leading in 10 others, riding on a popularity wave of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Of the 28 parliamentary seats in the state, where polling was held April 17, the Bharatiya Janata Party retained 16 of the 19 seats it won in 2009 elections, while the Congress is expected to gain just two more seats than the six it won last time.
As a regional party, Janata Dal-Secular is a distant third, winning one seat and leading in another as against the three seats it won in 2009 polls.
The BJP maintained its decade long winning streak in the southern state since 2004 when it bagged 18 seats. On Friday, it won 11 of the 18 seats for which ballot counting was completed, while the Congress won six seats.
According to the results declared till 4 p.m., the BJP won in Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bellary, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davanagere, Uduip-Chikmaglur, Dakshina Kannada, Bangalore North, Bijapur and Mysore.
The Congress won in Gulbarga (SC), Raichur (ST), Chitradurga (SC), Tumkur, Chikkballapur and Kolar (SC).
Prominent BJP winners are former state chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda from Bangalore North, B. Sreeramulu from Bellary (ST), Nalin Kumar Kateel from Dakshina Kannada, party's state unit president Pralhad Joshi from Dharwad, former state minister Shobha Karandlaje from Udupi and Ananth Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada.
Among prominent winners from the Congress so far are Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge from Gulbarga (SC), union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas M. Veerappa Moily and Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Minister K.H.A. Muniyappa from Kolar (SC) seat.
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