BJP set for majority in Karnataka Council after gap of 9 long years

BENGALURU: After a long gap of nine years, the ruling BJP is set for a clear majority in the Karnataka legislative council. The BJP and opposition Congress registered wins in one teachers’ constituency each in the biennial election to the Council for which results were declared on Wednesday, while counting of votes is under way for two graduates’ seats in which both national parties are leading in one each.
The JD(S) is set to draw a blank as it was relegated to third place in the South Graduate constituency, which it was expected to win considering that it was its stronghold in the Old Mysuru region.
Set for victory in two constituencies, the ruling party’s tally is expected to go up to 39, well past the majority mark of 38 in the 75-member Karnataka legislative council.
This will facilitate the saffron party to see through crucial bills like the anti-conversion bill, which has been stuck in the upper house for the past six months for want of numbers. The party had been forced to take the ordinance route as it lacked a majority.
At the time of going to press, sitting MLC BJP's Hanumanth Nirani was leading over Congress' Sunil Sanka by 27,000 votes in the Northwest Graduate seat. In the South Graduate seat, Congress' Madhu Madegowda had a 8,842-vote lead over BJP's M Y Ravishankar.
Setting another new record, Basavaraj Horatti, who contested this time on a BJP ticket, won the West Teachers' constituency comfortably for the record eighth time. He defeated Congress' Basavaraj Gurikar by 4,667 votes. Horatti joined the BJP just a month ago and is expected to return as council chairman.
The BJP's other candidate for the Northwest Teachers' constituency, Arun Shahapur, who was looking to score a hat-trick, lost to Congress veteran Prakash Hukkeri by 4,470 votes. Hukkeri, who entered the fray in the last moment, established a lead over Shahapur from round one of counting. While he bagged 10,521 first preference votes, Shahapur managed to get only 6,051 votes.
Counting for the Northwest Graduate and South Graduate constituencies is still on and results are likely to be out late in the night or early morning as no candidate crossed the halfway mark during the counting of the first preference votes.