The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress shared honours by winning 11 seats each in the elections to the 25 Legislative Council seats in the biennial elections held from 20 local authorities’ constituencies in the State.
With these results on Tuesday, the BJP fell short of one member for a majority in the 75-member Upper House. A major upset for the party was the defeat of its candidate Mahantesh Kavatagimath in the double-member Belagavi, where Channaraj B. Hattiholi of the Congress and Lakhan Jarkiholi, Independent, won.
While it initially looked like BJP would get 12 and attain majority, the last-minute reversal in Mysuru saw the Janata Dal (S) inching ahead of the BJP. In elections held to 25 Council seats, the BJP and Congress bagged 11 each and JD (S) two and Independent one.
After the results, BJP’s strength in the Council has increased from 32 to 37 while the Congress strength declined to 26 from 29 and the number of JD (S) members reduced to 10 from 12. In the last elections in 2015, the BJP had won six, Congress 14 and the JD (S) four seats. One seat had gone to an Independent. In this election, the BJP and Congress contested in 20 constituencies each, the JD (S) in six.
The JD (S) lost its ground to the Congress in the Old Mysore region, with the former failing to retain Tumakuru, Kolar, and Mandya seats. Confusing signals from the JD (S) leaders on alliance with the BJP are said to be one of the reasons for the defeat of JD (S) candidates.
Recount sought
In Chikkamagaluru constituency, the Congress candidate has contested the narrow victory of the BJP candidate and sought recounting on the grounds that the authorities counted votes of nominated members of local bodies. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai also demanded recounting of votes in Mysuru, even before the results were officially declared.
The BJP suffered humiliation in the defeat of Mr. Kavatagimath in Belagavi. Mr. Hattiholi of the Congress won in the first preference votes in the elections, while Independent Mr. Jarkiholi stood second and won. This has caused dissatisfaction in BJP over former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi who openly supported his brother. With the victory of Mr. Lakhan, all four Jarkiholi brothers will became members of the Legislature. Except in Dakshina Kannada, in four other double-member constituencies Congress candidates secured highest votes.
No woman candidate won in this election. Nearly a dozen of the candidates elected were either relatives of MLAs or sons of former legislators and ministers.
