With all eyes on the winners of the Lok Sabha elections, we get the losers to tell us what went wrong. Most say they lost because of public apathy

BANGALORE SOUTH
Krishna Byre Gowda, Congress: "There was no time to campaign in these constituencies. Fifteen days is not enough to campaign for parliamentary elections. Despite the time factor, I managed to cover all the areas and got many votes. I would like to thank all the voters who voted for me."
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Captain G R Gopinath, Independent: "This time, people didn't come out to vote. For example, out of 22 lakh votes, 4 lakh i.e. 15 per cent of the votes is enough to become an MP. Ananth Kumar got 4 lakh-plus votes and won the elections. My plan was to make more people vote so that I would get at least 15 per cent of the votes. Everyone should come out and vote, especially the youth. This time, many of them sat at home which is not right."
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Prof K E Radhakrishna JD(S): "Parliamentary elections normally see two national parties and a third one. People choose between the national parties, leading to polarisation. The same thing happened in my constituency also, with people choosing either the Congress or BJP. Also, the BJP campaigned aggressively this time because of which people became emotional. It will be a different story in the assembly elections. The candidate can belong to any party but should be a good worker and strong enough to contest.