Cong on cusp of Council majority, 18 seats up for grabs

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: The six Council seats going to polls on June 3 will have a long-term impact on the ruling Congress.

This is because 12 more Council seats will fall vacant by June 17, paving the way for contests for 18 seats. Victories in enough of those constituencies will give Congress a majority in the Upper House.

The fall-out from this would be that BJP leader Basavaraja Horatti would lose the Council Chairman’s post. The Congress could then appoint its own Chairperson.

Moreover, passage of Bills in the Upper House would also be a smoother affair for the ruling party since the Opposition has blocked them in the Council in the past year.

The 75-member Council currently has 29 Congress MLCs. Meanwhile BJP has 32 members and JD(S) has seven MLCs, giving the allies a 39-member majority. There are only 70 functional MLCs in the 75-member Council as some Upper House members resigned months prior.

Graduates, teachers to vote first The six Council seats that will cast their ballot on June 3 are Karnataka NorthEast Graduates, SouthWest Graduates, SouthEast Teachers, South-West Teachers, South Teachers and Bangalore Graduates.

Of the 12 seats falling vacant on June 17, 11 MLCs will be elected directly by MLAs. Of these 11, six are held by the BJP, four are Congressman and one is from the JD(S). Congress has the upper hand in electing these MLCs with 134 MLAs with three more Assembly members who are friendly to the party.

The Grand Old Party is in a position to elect eight of those 11 MLCs while the BJP might have to satisfy itself with three with another going to allies JD(S).

The Congress is said to be set on re-nominating political secretary to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah K Govindaraju, Minister for Science and Technology N Boseraju, Aravind Kumar Arali and Harish Kumar.

Yathindra shortlisted?

Hopefuls from the Grand Old Party include the CM’s son Dr Yathindra. Others being considered are former BJP MP from Koppal Karadi Sanganna, Deputy CM Shivakumar’s aide Vinay Mulgund, state Youth Congress president BV Srinivas, former CM Devaraj Urs’ grandson Suraj Hegde, Karnataka Women’s Congress president Pushpa Amarnath, former KP Nanjundi and former Council Chairman BL Shankar.

Shankar had been instrumental in getting HD Thammaiah to jump ship from the BJP to the Congress back in 2023. Thammaiah had gone on to beat his former mentor CT Ravi from the Chikkamagaluru Assembly seat in May last year.

Shankar may yet get rewarded with a Council seat for sacrificing his chance to land the Chikkamagaluru ticket from Congress in favour of a Thammaiah victory.

The BJP on the other hand may re-nominate N Ravikumar. Former MLAs JC Madhuswamy and CT Ravi may get some MLC consideration as well.