Cong wins 13 seats in Karnataka Legislative Council polls

With counting underway for seats to 25 seats, early trends showed that the BJP was leading in two seats while the Janata Dal (Secular) was ahead in one. The Upper House which has a total strength of 75 members and the Congress has very often been defeated on certain issues when the BJP and the JD(S) had come together. All those nominated by Siddaramaiah have won the elections and this has ensured that he passed the litmus test. The Congress also won in Bengaluru city district.

In Kolhapur, the sitting MLC Mahadevrao Mahadik of Congress is pitted against the party’s official candidate and former minister Satej Patil.

Faced with the fears of dissidents gaining more ammunition if the party’s score had fallen below 12, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has heaved a sigh of relief.

Though the Congress has bagged the highest number of seats, it can not stake claim to the coveted council chairman’s post as it is eight seats short of the required number (38 seats) to become the majority party in the council.

The BJP had to suffer a loss of face when it lost Ballari, once the fiefdom of the powerful Reddy brothers who controlled all the iron ore mines.

In the Dakshin Kannada and Udupi seats, the results were on expected lines. “Infighting between the leaders have led to JD(S) winning a seat, which the Congress should have won as the numbers indicated”, analyst Sandeep Shastri told ET.

Still smarting from the humiliation of failing to push through the bill in Legislative Council to divide BBMP into 2 or more smaller civic bodies, the Congress party’s strategies to wrest control of the Legislative Council from BJP have not borne the desired results.

In the JD(S) stronghold of Hassan (home constituency of former PM H D Deve Gowda and party president), the Congress candidate Gopalaswamy won easily. In the prestige battle between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Gowda, the former’s candidate bagged the seat. Yeddyurappa was unhappy with the candidature of Siddaramanna and did not campaign as much as he should have. Congress has humbled JD(S) in Deve Gowda’s political turf Hassan, which has come as a shocker for the party.