Karnataka election 2018: No son-stroke as Haris romps home

BENGALURU: N A Haris, sitting Congress MLA from Shantinagar, has won, notwithstanding the furore over his son’s alleged involvement in an attempt-to-murder case. The margin of his victory, however, reduced to 18,200 votes from 19,000 in 2013.
Haris braved some tense moments since counting began at 8am. He was trailing BJP’s K Vasudevamurthy by a few hundred votes at the end of some rounds.However, Haris finally emerged victorious. The constituency has over 2.18 lakh voters and recorded 55% turnout.
Opposition parties, including BJP, JD(S) and AAP, had launched a high-decibel campaign against Haris following the incident in a UB City restaurant where his son Mohammed Nalapad Haris and his associates allegedly assaulted a businessman’s son. AAP had fielded retired IAS officer Renuka Vishwanathan against Haris and N R Sridhar Reddy contested on a JD(S) ticket.
BJP had launched a citywide campaign against the incident, hoping it would have a negative impact on Congress candidates in neighbouring constituencies. But it didn’t work. Congress candidates in Shivajinagar and Chamarajpet too won by comfortable margins.