Elections 98

State:	Karnataka
Constituency:	Gulbarga
Total Votes Polled:	751597
Winner: BJP	Baswaraj Patil Sedam	328982
Runner Up: JD	Qamarul Islam	197184
Margin: 131798 (40%)

Elections 96

State:	Karnataka
Constituency:	Gulbarga
Total Votes Polled:	580679
Winner: JD	Qamarul Islam	203521
Runner Up: BJP	Basawaraj Patil Sedam	187976
Margin: 15545 (2.74%)

Former Congress chief minister Veerendra Patil was elected in 1984, but that was long before Rajiv Gandhi tried to remove him from the Vidhana Soudha. Throwing a surprise, the constituency, which has remained loyal with the Congress since 1952, broke ranks in 1996 and voted for the Janata Dal's Qamarul Islam. Surprisingly, because in the previous elections it was the BJP candidate who had finished second. In 1996 too, the party retained the second place, with a tally of 33.16 %.