BJP falls short by one seat in Karnataka Legislative Council polls

The ruling BJP on Tuesday fell one seat short of gaining a simple majority in the Karnataka Legislative Council.

The party bagged 11 of the 25 seats, from 20 Local Authorities' constituencies in the state, for which the biennial election was held on December 10, and counting was taken up today, poll officials said.

The opposition Congress also managed to clinch 11 seats, while the JD(S) has won Hassan seat and is leading in one of the seats in Mysuru. An independent candidate has managed to win one of the two seats in the prestigious Belagavi constituency, they said.

With these results, BJP's strength in the 75-member 'Upper House' has gone up from 32 to 37, while the Congress' tally declined from 29 to 26, and the JD(S)' numbers came down from 12 to 10 (if it wins Mysuru).

During the previous MLC polls from the Local Authorities' constituencies in 2015, the BJP had won six, Congress 14 and the JD(S) four seats respectively, while one seat had gone to an independent.

Over 99 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the December 10 elections from all the 25 seats, for which 90 candidates were in the fray, including twenty each from BJP and Congress, and six from JD(S).

The electorate for this election comprised elected representatives, including members of urban and rural local bodies. Unlike legislative Assembly or Lok Sabha polls, the council contests are decided by preferential votes.

In what can be termed as a dismal performance by the JD(S), the regional party has lost three out of four seats-Tumakuru, Kolar, Mandya, other than Mysuru- it had won last time, which comes under the party bastion of old Mysuru region.

However, a win by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's grandson Suraj Revanna in Hassan, came as a respite for the party.

In a major blow to the BJP, independent candidate Lakhan Jarkiholi, one among the Jarkiholi brothers, emerged victorious during the counting of second preferential votes in Belagavi, thereby bagging one of the two seats from the constituency, while Congress' Channaraj Hattiholi won the other in the first preferential votes.

M K Pranesh, who is Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council, Leader of the House and Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary won from Chikmagalur and Dakshina Kannada seats respectively on a BJP ticket, while the ruling side's chief whip Mahantesh Kavatagimath lost from Belagavi.

Congress' multi-billionaire candidate from Bangalore Urban, Yousuf Sharif who has declared assets belonging to him and his family worth over Rs 1,744 crore, lost to BJP's Gopinath Reddy.

Other than JD(S) Suraj Revanna, several candidates whose candidature gave rise to "nepotism debate" have emerged victorious. They include Congress' Channaraja Basavaraj Hottiholi MLA from Belagavi (brother of Lakshmi Hebbalkar), R Rajendra from Tumakuru (former party MLA K N Rajanna's son), S Ravi from Bengaluru Rural (relative of state Congress president D K Shivakumar), Sunil Gowda Patil from Vijayapura (brother of former minister MB Patil), Sarna Gowda Patil from Raichur (nephew of MLA Amregouda Patil), Bhimrao B Patil from Bidar (brother of MLA Rajasekhar Patil).

Also, BJP's Pradeep Shettar from Dharwad (brother of former chief minister and MLA Jagadish Shettar), D S Arun from Shivamogga (son of veteran BJP leader and former legislative council chairman D H Shankaramurthy) are among those who fall into the category.