BENGALURU: Ahead of the by-election to fill three vacant seats of the Legislative Council, Nivedith Alva and MC Venugopal have emerged as the frontrunners for the two MLC seats from the Congress quota. Coalition partners Congress and JD(S) have decided to put up a united fight against BJP with Congress putting up two candidates and JD(S) one.
A member needs 112 votes to get elected in the election to be held from the Legislative Assembly constituency. With a combined strength of 118 in the Assembly, Congress and JD(S) are well set to clinch the the seats in the face of the fact that BJP has just 104 members in the House.
However, the crisis precipitated by Jarkholi brothers in Congress and a group of Lingayat MLAs in Congress sulking, BJP is hoping to deliver a shock for the coalition partners. The party is yet to finalise its candidate. A clear picture on the candidates from the three parties is expected on Friday.
In JD(S), the competition for the MLC seat is being witnessed between former MLAs YSV Datta, Madhu Bangarappa and former MLC Ramesh Babu.Nivedith Alva, who is backed by DyCM Parameshwara, is facing tough competition from entrepreneur U B Venkatesh, who is backed by Congress leaders Ramalinga Reddy and Mallikarjun Kharge.
MLC bypoll deferred to Oct 4
The bypoll to fill 3 vacant seats of the Legislative Council, which was scheduled to be held on October 3, has been deferred by a day to October 4. The change in schedule has been necessitated due to the General Holidays of Muharram on September 21 and 4th Saturday of September 22 effectively curtailing the number of days available for the candidates to file their nomination papers.
According to the new schedule, the last date for filing of nominations is September 24, scrutiny of nominations will be held on September 25, last date for withdrawal of nominations is September 27 and polling will be held on October 4. Counting of votes will be taken up on the same day 5pm onwards.