Bengaluru, May 23 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka, while the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in two each, an official said on Thursday.

According to the latest trends available in 25 of the 28 parliamentary seats three hours after counting of votes began at 8 a.m, the BJP is leading in Bagalkot, Bangalore North, Bellary (ST), Bidar, Bijapur (SC), Chikkaballapur, Chikkodi, Chitradurga (SC), Dakishna Kannada, Davangere, Dharwad, Gulbarga, Haveri, Kolar (SC), Koppal, Mysore, Raichur (ST), Shimoga, Tumkur, Udupi-Chikmaglur and Uttara Kannada.

The Congress is leading in Bangalore Rural and Bangalore Central and the JD-S in Hassan and Mandya.

Prominent BJP candidates leading are Union Minister D.V. Sadananada Gowda in Bangalore North, Ananth Kumar Hegde in Uttara Kannada, Prahlad Joshi in Dharwad, Shoba Karandlaje in Udupi-Chikmaglur and B.Y. Raghavendra in Shimoga.

The two grandsons of Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda -- Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Prajwal Revanna -- are leading in the prestigious Mandya and Hassan.