Belgaum/Belagavi : Former Chief Minister and BJP candidate Jagdish Shettar, who contested the Lok Sabha elections for the first time in his career, posted a victory in the Belgaum Lok Sabha constituency. He defeated Congress' Mrinal Hebbalkar, who also contested the election for the first time. Jagadish Shettar won with a margin of 56,433 votes over the Congress candidate, by securing 2,76,266 votes.
Belgaum seat is currently represented by Mangala Angadi, the widow of former Union Minister of State Suresh Angadi. She had won with a slender margin of over 5,000 votes in the 2021 bypoll against the Congress strongman Satish Jarkiholi, when the seat fell vacant after her husband's death.
Shettar, a former Chief Minister, also happens to be a relative of the Angadi family and was the poll in-charge of this seat when Mangala faced the bypoll. Shettar, who had quit the BJP to join the Congress ahead of the state assembly polls last year after being denied the ticket, rejoined his old party in January.
Congress candidate Mrinal Hebbalkar is the son of Women and Child Development Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar. Shettar served as the 15th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 2012 to 2013. He has subsequently served as Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. He also served as the Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly during 2008–2009.
In 2019 he was inducted as the Cabinet Minister for Large and medium scale industries excluding sugar and Public Enterprise in the BJP Government led by B. S. Yediyurappa. He holds bachelor of commerce and law degrees, and was a practising lawyer for 20 years at the Hubli. Shettar belongs to the Banajiga sub-sect of Lingayat community.
Shettar quit the BJP in 2023 to join the Congress after he was denied a ticket by the saffron party in the state elections. He however rejoined BJP nine months later, citing his long association with the party, and said many of his well-wishers including party workers and leaders wanted him to be back.
2024 polls: The total number of registered voters in Belgaum constituency in 2024 polls was 1923788, and the seat saw a voting turnout of 71.49% (1375283 total count of votes), according to the Election Commission’s data. The seat went to polls in phase 3 on May 7, 2024.
In the 2019 LS Polls, Angadi Suresh Channabasappa of BJP retained the seat, getting 761,991 votes, comprising 63.22% of the total number of votes polled. He defeated Dr. Sadhunavar of Congress by a margin of 3,91,304 votes. Channabasappa had won from this seat in 2014 as well, polling 554,417 votes (51.40%) and defeating Laxmi R. Hebbalkar of Congress by a margin of 75,860 votes.
