Karnataka’s new Chief Minister D.K. Shivkumar has successfully crossed his first hurdle. In the first election contest after the new government took charge under the leadership of Shivakumar, the ruling Congress won 5 out of 7 seats in the Legislative Council, while the opposition party BJP won only 2 seats. Regarding cross-voting, CM Shivkumar said that he had not sought any support from anyone.
According to sources, the results declared on Thursday revealed that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal Secular (JDS) MLAs cross-voted in favor of Congress candidates. The ruling party got a total of 151 votes, which is 11 votes more than the total of 140 votes. 8 candidates were fielded for 7 MLC seats to be elected by the MLAs, voting for which was conducted in Vidhan Soudha (Assembly) yesterday on Thursday.
JDS candidate Raju lost
Five candidates from Congress (B.K. Hariprasad (KPCC President), Thippanappa Kamkanur, P.V. Mohan, Shivanna B.S. and Vinay Karthik Prakash) won the election. While 2 candidates of BJP (Lingraj Patil and Raghu R.) also won. However, JDS candidate Govindaraju had to face defeat.
The victory of Congress in the elections is due to the new Chief Minister Shivkumar and the new state president of the party B.K. It is considered quite pleasant for Hariprasad. A senior party functionary says the party’s success in garnering more votes than expected, especially from other parties, while maintaining its numbers amid fears of internal cross-voting during voting, reflects his leadership and organizational skills.
Cross-voting came as a surprise to the opposition.
A leader says that cross-voting for BJP was quite “surprising”. However, this is being seen as a major setback amid internal strife within the party and dissatisfaction with the state leadership. Whereas for JDS, this result reflects the challenges that it may have to face after Vokkaliga community leader Shivakumar becomes the CM.
These elections for the Legislative Council were held due to the expiry of the tenure of 7 MLCs, including Congress leaders Naseer Ahmed, Thippanappa and B.K. Along with Hariprasad, BJP leader N. Nagaraju (MTB), Sunil Vallayapur and Pratap Simha Nayak. Were involved. Apart from these, the tenure of JDS’s Govindaraju is also ending on June 30.
How many MLAs did cross voting?
According to information received from sources, preliminary information shows that 3 BJP MLAs and 8 JDS MLAs allegedly cross-voted in this election. Apart from this, the vote of a BJP MLA was declared invalid. Congress’s Hariprasad got 30 votes, Mohan got 29 votes, Shivanna got 30 votes, Kamakanur got 30 votes and Vinay Karthik (considered close to CM Shivakumar) got 32 votes and won.
Similarly, Raghu R from opposition party BJP got 29 votes and Lingaraj Patil got 27 votes and both were successful in winning. In Karnataka, the victory quota for the candidate was fixed at 27.63 votes. However, Lingaraj Patil could not reach that quota but he won the election in the elimination round. Sources said that one of the votes received by Raghu was declared invalid.
Govindaraju, who contested the elections from BJP’s ally JDS, got only 14 votes. In the Karnataka Assembly of 224 members, the current strength of which is 222. Congress has 135 MLAs (including the Deputy Speaker) and is supported by one from Sarvodaya Karnataka party, two independents and two suspended MLAs from BJP, ST Somashekhar and Shivaram Hebbar.
Congress becomes stronger in Legislative Council
Similarly, BJP, which has 62 MLAs in the Assembly, had the support of Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha’s G Janardhan Reddy, who is now with BJP, and expelled BJP leader Basangouda Patil Yatnal. JDS has 18 MLAs.
After this result of the Legislative Council, the number of Congress in the Legislative Council will now increase to 39. While BJP’s numbers will come down to 28, JDS’s numbers will also come down to 6. On allegations of cross-voting, CM Shivakumar said that neither did he seek any support from MLAs of other parties nor did he know who voted for whom, as the election was held through secret ballot.
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