DHARWAD: BJP retained its seat in Karnataka Legislative Council from West Graduates’ constituency with its candidate S V Sankanur getting re-elected on Tuesday.
The for the seat was held on October 28, and the votes were counted at UAS here on Tuesday.
For Sankanur, the victory didn’t come easily as it was in 2014. He kept the lead right from the first round, and clinched victory in the fourth round. Sankanur won by a margin of 11,409 votes against his nearest rival R M Kuberappa (Congress).
Sankanur and Kuberappa were polled 23,857 and 12,448 votes, respectively, while independent candidate Basavaraj Gurikar got 6,188 votes.
Regional commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas, who is the returning officer, announced the results. Of the 52,041 votes polled, 8,772 votes got rejected as invalid.
Sankanur had won in 2014 in the first round defeating political greenhorn Vasanth Horatti (JD-S) by a margin of 14,000 votes.
The present election had 11 candidates in fray. Shivashankar Kallur (JD-S) was forced by the party top brass to retire and support Gurikar.
Sankanur told TOI that he owed his victory to the party leaders, workers and his supporters in teaching community. “This victory has proved that the people continue to repose faith in the policies and programmes of BJP government at the state and Centre,” he said, adding: “My re-election has increased my responsibility towards the constituency. I will continue to strive and fulfil the promises made to the voters.”
Though the constituency has an estimated 3.50 lakh graduates, only 72,000 had registered their names in the electoral roll, signalling their indifference towards the election.