evidence: Bengaluru city has reposed its faith in the BJP again, after the party increased its vote share by 5.4% in the 2023 Assembly elections, even as it lost its vote share in every other region, except Old Mysore region. The Congress had pinned its hopes on two seats, Bengaluru Central and Bengaluru North, but they were eventually dashed. [...] Belying concerns within the BJP too, Shobha Karandlaje won the Bengaluru North seat by 2,59.476 votes, much higher than the 1,47,518 margin in 2019 of D.V. Sadananda Gowda, whom she replaced as candidate this time. Ms. Karandlaje, who won from the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru seat twice in 2014 and 2019, faced anti-incumbency and a "go back Shobha" campaign there, forcing the high command to shift her to Bengaluru North. However, here also she faced a lukewarm response from party leaders and workers owing to her being an outsider. Prof. M. V. Rajeev Gowda of the Congress failed to make the cut. Tejasvi Surya won the BJP stronghold of Bengaluru South again, as was predicted. However, his margin of victory reduced from 3,31,192 votes in 2019, when he made his electoral debut after the death of H.N. Ananth Kumar, who held the seat for six consecutive times from 1996, to 2,75,026 votes this time. The Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy’s daughter Sowmya Reddy, former Jayanagar MLA, who lost the seat by a very narrow margin, failed to breach the saffron fort.