Council polls: BJP falls short of majority after Cong puts up stellar fight

Karnataka’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Paty fell short of a clear majority in the Legislative Council as the election results of 25 seats in the upper house were declared on
Tuesday evening.

Going by the trends as counting progressed through the day, the BJP appeared set to wrest control of the Legislative Council for the first time. However, in the final tally, it fell short by one seat.

The BJP and Congress were neck-and-neck with 11 seats each while regional outfit Janata Dal (Secular) managed two seats.

In Karnataka’s 75-member upper house, the BJP has so far been dependent on the JD(S) for support in passing bills – with Tuesday’s results, the ruling party’s tally will go up to 37, one short of a simple majority.

The biennial elections to the 25 legislative council seats were held from the local authorities’ constituency — where the electorate comprises members of gram panchayats, municipal councils and other elected representatives.

Previously, the BJP held 6 seats, Congress 15 and the JD (S) 4. With Tuesday’s result, the BJP has increased its tally by five seats.

Political observers say ruling parties have an edge in these elections and therefore, the outcome may have fallen short of the BJP’s own expectations.

Besides, what could worry the BJP is the defeat in Belgaum where independent candidate, Lakhan Jarkiholi, won the polls at the cost of the party’s Mahantesh Mallikarjun Kavatagimath.

Lakhan is the brother of BJP legislator and former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, who has been unhappy since he was dropped from the cabinet last year, following a sex scandal.

The Jarkiholis are a powerful political family in Belgaum and the turn of events on Tuesday, political observers say, have once again brought tensions within the Karnataka BJP to the forefront.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders point at the narrow winning margin in some seats (especially in places like Chikmagalur where the ruling party is strong), stressing that they had put up a stiff fight. Besides, the party also seems to have garnered first preference votes in four of the five constituencies where two candidates could be elected.

Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah termed the election result a testimony to the Congress strength at the grassroots level, and said that it will encourage the party to fight further for the cause of the common man and face future elections with confidence.

“We would have won comfortably in more than 15 seats if other parties had not joined hands internally. Such backdoor politics is common and we will face this in future also,” he said, adding that “the BJP is aware that they cannot win any elections based on their zero achievements. Hence they made news about anti-conversion law during the election.”

Also read: Karnataka mulls punishment for forced conversion under new Bill

The council elections come a month after two high-voltage assembly bypolls in north Karnataka where the Congress pulled off a win in Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s home district.

The JD(S), which emerged worse off compared to its two bigger rivals, won only two seats at Hassan and Mysore.

“We put in efforts in this election but we fell behind given the money power of the bigger parties,” said JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Twitter.

At Hassan, party supremo H D Deve Gowda’s grandson Suraj Revanna was the party’s winning candidate.