BJP gets majority in Upper House

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

The ruling BJP has succeeded in getting a majority in the state Legislative Council winning two of the four seats in the Graduates’ and Teachers’ constituencies for which elections were held recently. While the BJP won North Teachers’ and West Teachers’ seats, the Congress Party bagged South Graduates’ and North West constituency.

The Janata Dal (Secular) drew a blank Of the total 75 seats in the Council, the BJP now has 39 seats including the chairman, Raghunath Malkapure. If Lakhan Jarkiholi, an independent member and brother of former minister and MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, joins the saffron party, then the strength of the BJP will go up to 40.

This has come as a shot in the arm for the BJP which has been waiting for the last many months to get a majority in the upper house for the smooth passage of contentious bills. A number of bills were stuck in the Upper House due to the BJP’s lack of majority. This had forced the state government to take the ordinance route to get certain contentious bills pending in the Legislative Council, approved.

Now the government is expected to withdraw the ordinances and get the bills passed in the Upper house smoothly. Recently, in the Council election held to seven seats from the State Legislative Assembly, the BJP had won 4, the Congress two and the JD(S), one seat.