Congress continued to dominate the Karnataka Legislative Council elections. It won five out of seven seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the remaining two after the counting of votes ended on Thursday. Congress candidates BK Hariprasad, Thippanappa Kamkanur, PV Mohan, Shivanna BS (Malavalli), and Vinay Karthik Prakash won. BJP’s Lingaraj Patil and Raghu R also won their respective contests, while JDS candidate Govindaraju lost.
Legislative Council elections Following its victory, the Congress strengthened its position in the 75-member Upper House, taking its seat tally to 39. BJP has 29 seats, while JDS has six members. The House also includes one independent member.
JDS got a shock
Janata Dal (Secular) suffered a setback in the Karnataka Legislative Council elections, with its candidate Govindaraju losing the election for the seventh seat, while the ruling Congress won the fifth.
The JDS candidate got only 14 first preference votes, which shows that four out of 18 JDS MLAs cross-voted in favor of the Congress. It also became clear that the JDS candidate did not get the two surplus votes of BJP.
Congress was determined to win five out of seven seats with the help of independent and unattached MLAs expelled from BJP. The JDS, with the help of the BJP, was hoping to win a seat in which other MLAs, including Congress MLAs, had cast “votes of interest” in its favour.
Congress’s dominance continues
In the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, Congress has 134 MLAs, while BJP has 62 and JDS has 18 MLAs. The remaining strength includes one MLA each from Kalyan Rajya Pragati Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha, two independents, three unattached members and the Speaker, while two assembly seats are vacant.
Under the Proportional Representation System, each winning candidate needs 28 votes. After electing its first four candidates by 28 votes each, Congress was left with 22 votes and needed six more votes to confirm its fifth seat.
JDS, despite getting more votes than BJP, fell short of the required numbers. To ensure victory for Govindaraju, the BJP-JDS alliance needed the support of independents, smaller parties and isolated MLAs, as well as to avoid cross-voting and abstention. However, Congress ultimately managed to win the required seventh seat, which JDS lost.
Voting was held for seven vacant seats
100 percent voting took place in the Karnataka Legislative Council elections, in which all 222 eligible voters cast their votes. A total of eight candidates were in the fray for the seven vacant seats, and each candidate needed 28 votes to confirm victory under the proportional representation system.
Voting for the seven vacant Legislative Council seats took place today (June 18) from 9 am to 4 pm at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. This election was conducted to fill the seats which will be vacant after the retirement of seven sitting MLCs on June 30. The outgoing members include Congress’s Govindaraju, Naseer Ahmed, Thippanappa and BK Hariprasad along with BJP’s MTB Nagaraju, Pratap Simha Nayak and Sunil Vallyapur.
Before the elections, four out of seven seats were with Congress, two with BJP and one with JDS. The new results have further strengthened the position of Congress in the Upper House of Karnataka Legislature. Everyone’s eyes were on the election as it was being considered as the first major electoral test under the leadership of Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.
Input- TV9 Kannada
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