Belying expectations of a close fight, the election to the Karnataka West Graduates Constituency turned out to be a one-sided affair with BJP candidate S.V. Sankanur registering an easy win to gain entry to the Legislative Council for the second time. With the win, the BJP has won the seat for the third time now.
After the fourth round of counting of votes at University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad concluded on Tuesday night, Returning Officer and Regional Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas declared Prof. Sankanur, who secured 23,857 first preference votes, as elected.
His nearest rival R.M. Kuberappa of the Congress secured 12,448 first preference votes and Independent candidate Basavaraj Gurikar, who was supported by Janata Dal(Secular), secured 6,188 votes. Although Janata Dal(S) candidate Shivashankar Kallur had withdrawn from the contest in support of Mr. Gurikar, 102 voters cast their votes for him.
What was shocking was that 8,772 votes were declared as rejected out of the total 52,041 leaving 43,269 as valid votes. Despite being graduates, many voters did not know how to cast preferential votes. Not following the guidelines, many voters had cast their votes writing down the “right” and “cross” marks, by drawing circles and even writing the candidates serial number in front of their names in the ballot papers, thus making their votes invalid. Election officials and even poll agents expressed dismay over the development.
As per the guidelines, the winner had to secure 21,636 votes for his election and Prof. Sankanur polled 23,857 votes. However, his winning margin was less than that of the 2014 election’s. While Prof. Sankanur had won against the former Minister Basavaraj Horatti’s son Vasant Horatti in 2014 with a margin of 14,000 votes, this time it got reduced to 11,409.
For the record, there were 11 candidates in the fray. Barring the first three candidates, the votes polled by the other candidates did not cross four digits. In fact, four candidates polled less than 100 votes.
Addressing presspersons after his win, Prof. Sankanur thanked the voters for reimposing their faith in him and thanked all the BJP leaders and workers for their efforts and cooperation.
However, Prof. Kuberappa said that he was not happy with the decision of the graduate voters, who, he said, had voted for a candidate who neither worked for them nor met them to hear their grievances. “But, as a Congressman, I would continue to work for the graduates and teachers, as I have been doing for the past four decades,” he said.
Mr. Basavaraj Gurikar said that he would accept the decision of the voters but would continue to work for the cause of teachers and graduates.
Earlier, as per the direction of the Election Commission, the strongroom where the ballot boxes were kept, was opened at 7.55 a.m. in the presence of the candidates and authorised agents, Election Observer and Additional Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh and Returning Officer and Regional Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas and other officials.
