BJP wins three out of four Karnataka Council seats in biennial polls

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 3 of the 4 seats in the October 28 biennial elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council, including 2 from Teachers and 1 from Graduates constituency, an official said on Tuesday.

"BJP's Puttanna won the Bangalore Teachers seat with 7,335 votes, defeating A.P. Ranganatha of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) with 5,107 votes and R. Praveen Kumar of Congress with 782 votes," an Election Commission official told IANS here.

Puttanna, who defected from the JD-S, has retained the seat.

In Karnataka North-East Teachers constituency, BJP's Shashil Namoshi won with 9,418 votes, wresting the seat from Sharanappa Mattur of Congress who polled 6,213 votes, while Timmayya Purle of JD-S secured 3,812 votes.

Namoshi had won from the seat twice earlier, while Mattur re-contested after his term ended in June but lost.

In Karnataka West Graduates segment, BJP's S.V. Sankur won with 13,293 votes, defeating R.M. Kuberappa of Congress with 6,111 votes and Basavaraj Terdal, an Independent, with 3,540 votes.

Sankur re-contested to retain the seat after his term ended in June.

Vote count is still underway in the Karnataka South-East Graduates seat, in which Chidanand Gowda of the BJP, Ramesh Babu of the Congress and R. Chowda Reddy of the JD-S are in the fray. Reddy has re-contested after his term ended in June.

Votes of Bangalore Teachers and North East Teachers seats were counted in Bengaluru, while that of West Graduates at Dharwad in the state's northwest region and South-East Graduates at Gulbarga in the state's northern region.

Voting in the biennial elections to the four seats was held to fill vacancies caused after the term of the incumbent lawmaker ended in June.

The by-elections, however, could not be held in July due to the Covid-19 pandemic gripping the state since mid-March.

In West Graduates, 70.11 per cent voting was recorded, followed by 75 per cent in South-East Graduates, 73.32 per cent in North-East Teachers and 66 per cent in Bangalore Teachers constituency.

In all, 40 candidates from BJP, Congress, Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and Independents were in the fray in all the four seats.

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