Voting for Karnataka Legislative Council polls begins

Voting for seven seats in the Karnataka Legislative Council began on June 18 at Vidhan Soudha in Bengaluru.

The ruling Congress, which has 37 members in the 75-member Upper House, is expected to secure a majority in four seats. The expiration of the term of three of the 37 Congress members will reduce the party’s number of MLCs to 34.

Congress nominated five candidates in this election. If it manages to win all five seats, the number will increase to 39.

Of the seven seats, the Congress and the BJP are expected to comfortably win four and two seats respectively. Congress candidates KPCC chief BK Hariprasad, Tippanna Kamakanoor, PV Mohan and BS Shivanna and BJP candidates Lingaraj Patil and Raghu Kautilya are expected to progress comfortably.

The Congress is locked in a battle with the JD(S) for the seventh seat, where Vinay Karthik is pitted against Govindaraju, the richest candidate in the fray.

Voting is done by secret ballot. Voters are members of the lower house, the Assembly. A candidate must receive at least 28 votes to win. In most cases, parties give extra votes to each candidate as a precaution if a vote is invalidated and legislators abstain from voting or do not participate in the election.

In the 224-member Lower House, the current strength increased to 222 following the disqualification of Vinay Kulkarni and the demise of former Minister D. Sudhakar.

The Congress has 135 members and has the support of two Independents, one member of Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha and two members expelled by the BJP – ST Somashekar and Shivaram Hebbar.

While the BJP has 63 members, including G. Janardhan Reddy, its ally JD(S) has 18 members. Expelled BJP member Basanagouda R. Patil is counting on Yatnal’s vote.

The Bengaluru police imposed prohibitory orders within a one kilometer radius of Vidhana Soudha under Article 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) on June 18 to ensure law and order, security and smooth conduct of the scheduled MLC election process.

Entry will be allowed only on the basis of valid passes. Access is restricted to members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), members of the Legislative Council (MLCs), members of Parliament (MPs) and authorized officials and staff working in Vidhana Soudha. Voting and counting officials carrying valid authorization documents will also be allowed to enter.