Congress wins North-East Graduates Council seat but still short of majority

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: The ruling Congress party won the Karnataka North-East Graduates Council seat after counting of votes concluded early Friday morning, thus securing three of the six Graduates and Teachers seats in the Legislative Council which went to polls on June 3.

The JD(S) won two and the BJP could win only one seat compared to the three it had held earlier. BJP’s Amarnath Patil was leading in Karnataka NorthEast Graduates, where Congressman Dr Chandrashekhar Patil is the incumbent on Thursday night.

However, when the final round of counting concluded, Chandrasehkhar won by 4,651 votes. Poll officials said that counting for the seat concluded at 6 am on Friday. The delay was credited to paper ballots and preferential voting.

Chandrasehkhar won because of second preference votes. Under preferential voting, one casts four votes in order of preference. If a candidate wins 50 per cent of first preference votes, he wins.

However, if he falls short, counting has to be done of second, third or even fourth preference votes until the tally for the winning candidate exceeds 50 per cent. Five other seats went to polls alongside North-East Graduates on Monday namely South-West Graduates, South-East Teachers, South-West Teachers, South Teachers and Bangalore Graduates.

The Grand Old Party wrested Bangalore Graduates Council from BJP incumbent A Devegowda as Congressman Ramoji Gowda emerged victorious. Meanwhi le, Cong ress’ DT Srinivas defeated BJP’s YA Narayanaswamy from South East Teachers.

However, JD(S) won both Council segments it contested in a seat-sharing arrangement with the BJP. JD(S) leader SL Bhoje Gowda won the South West Teachers seat, defeating Congressman KK Manjunath Kumar.

The regional outfit also wrested the South Teachers’ seat from former party man and Congress candidate Marithibbegowda. BJP on the other hand lost all but one of the four seats it contested.

Its candidate Dhananjay Sarji defeated Congressman Ayanur Manjunath in South West Graduates constituency.

Majority out of reach for now

Congress has thus lost the opportunity to gain a majority in the Council as it lost three of the Council seats it contested on Monday. It needed to win all six Graduates and Teachers seats to gain the 38-member majority in the Upper House.

However, on June 17, it will have 35 active MLCs. Congress will now have to wait until 2026 to gain a majority in the 75-member Council.

BJP leader Basavaraj Horatti is the current Council Chairman. Congress will have to gain a majority to appoint its own Chairman.

Earlier, BJP had 32 MLCs, Congress had 29 and JD(S) had seven. Meanwhile, the terms of 11 more MLCs, who are elected by MLAs directly, will end on June 17. Six of those outgoing MLCs are from the BJP while four are Congressman and one is from the JD(S).

Congress candidates have won seven of these 11 Council seats unopposed while the BJP managed to gain three and ally JD(S) one.

So on June 17, the Council strength will further change and the Congress will have 34 MLCs, BJP 30 and JD(S) 10. A not her M L C by-pol l is due.