Council elections: Congress wins 3; JD(S) gets 2

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: The results for the six Council seats, which were declared on Thursday, threw up surprises for the three largest parties. Congress, which contested alone, has won three of the constituencies.

BJP and JD(S) competed as coalition partners. The saffron party is leading in one seat by a thin margin and has contested three seats.

JD(S) has won both of the constituencies they contested. Karnataka North-East Graduates, South-West Graduates, South-East Teachers, South-West Teachers, South Teachers and Bangalore Graduates seats cast their ballot on Monday.

Teachers and graduates registered as electors vote in these seats. Marithibbegowda loses The first surprise was that Congressman Marithibbegowda lost his stronghold – the South Teachers Council seat – to JD(S) candidate K Vivekananda.

Marithibbegowda had quit

JD(S) and joined the Congress in March. He had won from the seat four times and had done so on a JD(S) ticket last time. The South Teachers seat covers Mysuru, Chamarajnagar, Mandya and Hassan districts.

The votes were counted at Maharani Science College in Mysuru city. This is the second loss that the Congress has suffered in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's home district of Mysuru in the past three days.

Congress candidate M Lakshmana had lost to BJP man and Mysuru royal Yaduveer from the MysuruKodagu seat. Vivekananda secured 10,823 votes compared to Marithibbegowda’s 6,201 votes, making it a margin of 4,622 votes. Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Party leader Vatal Nagaraj who also contested as an independent secured a paltry 84 votes.

Moreover, 1,049 votes have been declared invalid. Of the total 21,549 voters in the constituency, 18,979 cast their ballot, making it a 88.07 per cent turn-out. BJP bastion breached BJP suffered a setback as their candidate and incumbent A Devegowda lost the Bangalore Graduates Council seat against Congressman Ramoji Gowda.

Ramoji secured 36,729 votes against Devegowda’s 24,888. The total numbers of voters in the seat are 1,21,860 voters. As many as 8,482 votes were rejected.

Rebel candidates also played spoilsport as BJP man and party Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh's aide RS Uday Singh polled 2,142 votes and JD(S)- aligned M Puttaswamy gathered 3,958 votes, hamstringing Devegowda's bid.

Meanwhile, Congressman DT Srinivas defeated BJP’s YA Narayanaswamy from the South East Teachers Council seat by a margin of 1,861 votes.

Moreover, Congressman and former JD(S) leader Ayanur Manjunath won the South West Graduates, beating BJP’s Dhananjay Sarji. In keeping with the theme of these elections, the saffron party was plagued by a prominent rebel candidate in former BJP MLA from Udupi Raghupati Bhat.

Bhoje Gowda prevails

JD(S) stalwart SL Bhoje Gowda retained his South West Teachers Council seat, beating Congressman KK Manjunath. Gowda dedicated his victory to teachers in his constituency and credited the smooth transfer of votes in the seat sharing arrangement with allies BJP.

BJP was leading by a thin margin in Karnataka NorthEast Graduates, the only Council seat where it holds an advantage.

After two rounds, BJP candidate Amarnath Patil secured 8,732 votes against Congressman Dr Chandrashekhar's 8,423, making it a 309 vote margin. Independents collectively polled 6,163 votes while 6,163 votes were rejected. The seat has 1,56,623 voters.