BENGALURU: Polling for the biennial elections to six Legislative Council seats in Karnataka -- three each from Teachers’ and Graduates’ constituencies -- was held on Monday. The results are scheduled to be announced on June 6.
While the Karnataka South East Teachers constituency recorded a polling percentage of 95.27, the Bangalore Graduates constituency recorded the lowest of 65.86. Karnataka North East Graduates constituency recorded 69.51 per cent polling, Karnataka South West Graduates 78.19 per cent, Karnataka South West Teachers recorded 82.56 per cent and Karnataka South Teachers constituency recorded 88.07 per cent polling.
This year, three graduates’ constituencies put together had 3.63 lakh voters and three teachers’ constituencies, 70,260 voters. Polling was held at 170 centres for teachers and 461 for graduates. As many as 78 candidates were in the fray.
At present, in the 75-member upper house, Congress has 29 members. Out of the six seats for which polls were held on Monday, Congress holds one seat and the remaining five are represented by the BJP and JDS. Congress leaders are hoping to get more seats.
Congress fielded Marithibbe Gowda from Karnataka South Teachers, K K Manjunath from Karnataka South-West Teachers, Ayanur Manjunath from South-West Graduates, Chandrashekhar Patil from North-East Graduates, D T Srinivas from Karnataka South-East Teachers and Ramoji Gowda from Bangalore Graduates.
As BJP-JDS alliance candidates, the BJP fielded Amarnath Patil from Karnataka North-East Graduates, Dr Dhananjay Sarji from Karnataka South-West Graduates, A Devegowda from Bangalore Graduates and Y A Narayanaswamy from Karnataka South-East Teachers and JDS fielded K Vivekananda from Karnataka South Teachers and Bhoje Gowda from Karnataka South West Teachers.