Voting began on Thursday for the election to seven Legislative Council seats in Karnataka, where eight candidates are in the fray.
This marks the first electoral battle for the ruling Congress after Chief Minister D K Shivakumar assumed office. Members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly will vote in the election at the Vidhana Soudha here.
According to the returning officer, voting began at 9 am and will go on till 4 pm, while the counting will commence at 5 pm.
Each candidate requires a minimum of 28 votes to win.
The Congress and BJP are expected to comfortably win four and two seats respectively, based on their strength in the Assembly, officials said.
However, a contest is likely for the seventh seat, as both Congress and JD(S) have fielded candidates despite lacking the strength to win it on their own.
The ruling Congress under CM Shivakumar is determined to win five out of the seven seats with the help of independents and unattached MLAs-who were expelled from the BJP.
While the JD(S), with the help of its alliance partner BJP, is hoping to win one seat, and has requested other MLAs, including those from Congress, to cast a "vote of conscience" in its favour.
The Congress and JD(S) legislators are expected to come directly from the resorts they were camping in, to caste their votes.
BJP MLAs met at the party's legislature office at Vidhana Soudha ahead of voting.
The candidates in the fray are Congress's Thippannappa Kamknoor, P V Mohan, B K Hariprasad (KPCC president), Shivanna B S, and Vinay Karthik Prakash; BJP's Lingaraj Patil and Raghu R; and JD(S) leader Govindaraju.
The ruling Congress has 134 MLAs in the 224-member Assembly, followed by the BJP with 62. The JD(S) has 18 MLAs.
There is also one member each from Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha, two Independents, three unattached members, and the Speaker. Two seats are vacant.
To secure enough votes for the seventh seat, both the Congress and the BJP-JD(S) combine must secure the support from smaller parties, independents, and unattached MLAs, while also ensuring their own votes remain intact amid fears of cross-voting or absenteeism, sources added.
Aimed at keeping the flock together, Congress legislators were accommodated at a resort in Bidadi, Bengaluru South district -- the home district of CM Shivakumar.
Congress, which held its legislature party meeting at the resort on Tuesday night, familiarized its legislators with the voting process using a model ballot paper on Wednesday.
Also the allocation of preferential votes was discussed at the resort meeting to ensure no vote becomes invalid, and mock voting was held in which Shivakumar also took part.
Congress is hoping that two independents, along with Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha's Darshan Puttannaiah and two of the three unattached members expelled from the BJP-S T Somashekar and Shivaram Hebbar-will vote in its favour.
Somashekar and Hebbar were seen at the resort where Congress legislators were camped on Wednesday.
The party also hopes that second preference votes under the single transferable vote (STV) system will give it an edge in ensuring the victory of its fifth candidate.
The BJP is confident of ensuring the victory of both its candidates based on its Assembly strength.
The party held its legislature party meeting here on Wednesday evening under the leadership of Leader of Opposition in Assembly R Ashoka, ahead of voting.
The JD(S) which is banking on the support of surplus votes from BJP, is confident of support from Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha's G Janardhan Reddy who is now with the BJP and expelled saffron party leader Basangouda Patil Yatnal.
The regional party also hopes for a "vote of conscience" from some Congress legislators in its favour.
Amid concerns of cross-voting, JD(S) legislators were sequestered at a resort near Devanahalli on the outskirts of the city, and party leader and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy met MLAs on Wednesday.
(With inputs from PTI)