BENGALURU: As the counting of votes polled in the state legislative council elections held on December 10 is underway, the early trends indicate that the ruling BJP is inching closer to getting a majority in the 75-member Upper House.
BJP candidates have won in Kodagu, Bengaluru Urban, Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada, Chitradurga, Chikmagalur, Ballari, and the party candidates are leading in many constituencies.
In Kodagu, BJP candidate Suja Kushalappa won by a lead of 102 votes against Congress candidate Mantar Gowda. While Suja secured 705 votes, Mantar Gowda obtained 603 votes. A total of 17 votes were declared invalid out of the total 1325 votes in the district.
During the first round of counting, Suja Kushalappa was leading by 93 votes. He polled 705 votes. Mantar Gowda got 603 votes. A total of 17 votes out of the 1325 votes were declared invalid.
Suja is the brother of the former MLC Sunil Subramani and current MLA Appachu Ranjan. While BJP was hopeful of winning the election with 1000 votes, it won by a small majority.
“We had expected a lead with 1000 votes by our side. However, it seems like the 'play of money' has affected our prediction. Nevertheless, the work of the party since the past 25 years has been recognized by the voters and people from outside the district have been taught an apt lesson,” shared Suja while expressing joy over his win.
Meanwhile, a few Congress workers were present during the counting process and candidate Mantar Gowda did not visit the center. He, however, later addressed a press conference in the city.
“We have found victory in our loss. The strong 25-year-old fort of the BJP in the district has been shaken by Congress in just 25 days. Congress had just 400 supported votes in this election, but we have managed to attain over 600 votes. I am not saddened by the result. We will learn from our loss and it is time for introspection,” said Mantar Gowda.
In Shivamogga, BJP candidate D S Arun won by a margin of 344 votes on a first preference vote basis.
Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary from the BJP and Manjunath Bhandary of the Congress has won the MLC elections on the first priority vote basis. Kota secures 3062 votes while Bhandary secured 2077 votes. However official declaration of the results is yet to be made. Out of 6011 votes polled, 56 were rejected. Both the winning candidates credited the victory to their party workers.
In Kolar, Congress candidate won with a margin of 598 votes. M.L.Anil Kumar from Congress secured 2280 votes, Dr Venugopal of BJP was polled 1682 and Vokleri Ramu of JDS got 1438 votes.
Congress Dr Thimmaiah wins in the first round securing 2292 first preferential votes from Mysuru- Chamarajanagar double member constituency. BJP Raghu gets 1962 votes and JDS CN Manje Gowda manages 1640 votes. Counting is in progress.
Congress candidates were leading in several constituencies including Mandya. In Belagavi, Congress candidate Channaraj Hattiholi is leading in the dual seat local bodies constituency and the sitting MLC and BJP candidate Mahantesh Kavatagimath was in third place.
Dr Suraj Revanna son of former Minister HD Revanna won the council seat from the local body constituency in Hassan. He won the seat with a margin of 1433 votes in the first round.
The election to the 25 seats from 20 local bodies constituencies was necessitated as the term of 14 Congress, seven BJP and four JDS members will end in January 2022. The BJP needs to win at least 13 seats to get a clear majority in the council. The party was confident of winning around 14s seats. The Congress was hoping to retain 14 seats it had won in 2015.