Bengaluru/Mangaluru: Karnataka Vidhana Parishad or MLC election results are out and the ruling Congress party in the state has bagged 13 out of the 25 seats in the state.
The main opposition BJP has won 6 while the JDS has managed to secure just 4 seats. The Independents have won in 2 seats.
In a very significant development, the BJP has lost former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa’s bastion of Shivamogga district to the Congress. Siddaramaiah follower- R Prasannakumar has won the seat by defeating the JDS candidate in Shivamogga. It is said that Yeddyurappa did not campaign much in his district as he was upset with party candidate Siddaramanna.
In HD Deve Gowda’s stronghold Hassan, JDS has suffered a shameful defeat at the hands of Congress. The Gowda family feud is said to be the major reason behind Hassan drubbing. In top Congress leader M Mallikarjuna Kharge’s bastion Gulbarga district, the BJP has won the seat by a huge margin. In Kolar district, represented by former Union Ministers M Veerappa Moily and KH Muniyappa in the Lok Sabha, the JDS has won by defeating the Congress.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has managed to secure his hometown Mysore district for the Congress. The Congress has also won Bangalore City District. The BJP rebel and former Union Minister BR Patil Yatnal has won Bijapura district by pushing the BJP to third place.
Former chief minister N Dharam Singh’s son Vijay Singh has won on Congress ticket from Bidar district. Former MP KC Kondaiah of the Congress has won from Bellary district. The Congress has also won Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Bangalore Rural, Chitradurga, Dharwad, Bijapura, Raichur districts. The BJP has won Bijapura, Gulbarga, Chikmagalur, Kodagu and Dharwad districts. Dakshina Kannada, Mysore, Bijapura, Dharwad and Belgaum districts elect two members each.
It may be recalled that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other Congress leaders were struggling to overcome the rebellion factor that made the condition of the Congress party look precarious.
An elated Siddaramaiah described the victory as a mandate for the Congress.
Crucial Taluk Panchayat and Zilla Panchayat elections are going to be held in February – 2016.
Dakshina Kannada – Udupi constituency
Both the BJP and the Congress have retained their seats in the election to legislative council from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi constituency.
Kota Srinivasa Poojary of the BJP and K Pratapchandra Shetty of the Congress have won the elections.
Of the 6,534 votes polled, 231 were rejected. The BJP was polled 2,977 votes and the Congress 2,237. Hegde secured 872 and Bantwal 127. Praveenchanra Jain of the Janata Dal (Secular) was polled 30 votes. Two voters preferred NOTA. There were eight candidates in the fray.
While the line for Kota Poojary was clear since beginning, the Congress candidate faced tough times by the party members who were later ousted from the party from turning rebellion.
Both rebel candidates Jayaprakash Hegde and Harikrishna Bantwal said that they were deeply hurt as the Congress chose to field a person such as Pratapchandra Shetty, who had been claiming that he did not want to contest for any post as politics has been ‘corrupted’. However, only because highly influential Congressman Oscar Fernandes wanted Pratapchandra in the fray, he had been given the ticket.
The duo had also alleged that Pratapchandra did not attend even a single meeting out of the 164 meetings held in the MCC and it was extremely wrong on the part of the party to issue him the ticket.
Going a step further, Bantwal had recently alleged that Shetty was plotting to buy votes buy luring the voters.
