BENGALURU: Riding on Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s popularity, the BJP stopped just eight seats short of the magic figure, which is required to claim power in Karnataka. While the BJP emerged victorious in 104 assembly seats, it lost by a margin of less than 3,000 votes in at least 10 constituencies.BJP’s Basanagowda Turvihal, who contested from Maski in Raichur, lost to the Congress only by 213 votes. A sitting MLA, Turvihal was defeated political greenhorn Pratapgouda Patil, who had joined the party from JDS. Other than Turvihal, the BJP lost by less than 2,000 votes in other six assembly seats.In addition to these seats, the BJP was also confident of winning in constituencies such as Sringeri (Chikmagalur district) and Athani (Belagavi district), which are represented by heavyweights and sitting MLAs D N Jeevaraj and Laxman Savadi. The saffron party lost these seats by a narrow margin.Big Margin Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, who moved from JDS to Congress, has a biggest victory margin with over 80,000 votes. He contested from Pulakeshinagar assembly seat in Bengaluru against his old rival Prasanna Kumar, who changed his loyalties to the JDS after Congress gave ticket to Murthy.For at least 10 candidates, the May 12 polls were a cakewalk as all of them won with a margin of 50,000 plus votes.Senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar won with a comfortable margin of 79,000 votes from Kanakapura, even though he spent very little time campaigning in the constituency.