Mysore/Mysuru: Just two days after it received a setback in Lok Sabha polls, the ruling Congress in State suffered another jolt in Biennial  Legislative Council polls from Teachers and Graduates Constituencies, with the BJP-JD(S) coalition NDA candidates winning all three seats coming under Mysuru Revenue Division by a comfortable margin.

The election to 6 Legislative Council seats (3 Teachers and 3 Graduates) — South Teachers, South-West Teachers, South-West Graduates, North-East Teachers, Bengaluru Graduates and South-East Teachers, was held on June 3 and the counting of votes was taken up yesterday.

While counting for South Teachers, South-West Teachers and South-West Graduates was held in Mysuru at Maharani’s Science College for Women, that of North-East Graduates was held at Kalaburagi; Bengaluru Graduates and South-East Teachers Constituencies at Bengaluru.

In South Teachers Constituency, which comprises Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar,  NDA candidate K. Vivekananda won the seat by defeating his nearest rival Marithibbegowda of Congress by a huge margin of 4,622 votes in the count of first preferential votes itself. Marithibbegowda, who was the MLC for four successive terms spanning 24 years, bit the dust as first time contestant Vivekananda, a JD(S) leader of Mandya, romped home by a margin of 4,622 votes. While Vivekananda bagged 10,823 votes, Marithibbegowda of Congress could manage to secure only 6,291 votes. As Vivekananda got more than half of the valid votes in counting of first preferential votes, he was declared the winner by a margin of 4,622 votes.

A total of 18,989 out of 21,549 voters from the four districts had exercised their franchise.

Vivekananda who managed to secure lead in the first round itself, only consolidated his lead as the counting progressed and his victory was sealed after the final round of counting, with  Mysuru Regional Commissioner Dr. G.C. Prakash, who is also Returning Officer, officially declaring him the winner.

Big blow

It is a big blow to Congress in the home turf of CM Siddaramaiah, as it could not win the seat despite fielding Marithibbegowda, an old war horse. Just a couple of days ago, the Congress lost Mysuru-Kodagu  LS polls.

There were 9 other candidates in fray — Nagendrababu Maddur who managed just 26 votes, former MLA Vatal Nagaraj of Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha (84), Dr. Anil Kumar (23), Kadamba Naa Ambarish (one vote) , Nagamallesh (256), Ningaraju S. Shankanapura (8), K.C. Puttasiddashetty, a former MLC (19) from the same Constituency, Dr. H.R. Mahesh (492) and Raju K. Siddaianapura (4).

While Kadamba Ambarish managed to secure a single vote, which probably might have been that  of himself, Raju Siddaianapura could get only 4 votes.  Interestingly, barring, Dr. Mahesh and Nagamallesh, none of other independent candidates, including Vatal Nagaraj, could reach three-figure mark.

1,049 invalid votes

The South Teachers Constituency saw as many as 1,049 invalid votes (out of 18,989 votes polled), which is an astonishing figure considering the fact that only teachers are the voters. 

South-West Teachers Constituency: NDA candidate S.L. Bhojegowda of JD(S), won the seat by defeating his nearest rival Dr. K.K. Manjunath Kumar (Master) of Congress by a big margin of 5,267 votes. While Bhojegowda secured 9,829 votes, Manjunath could manage only 4,562. Bhojegowda was declared winner after counting of first preferential votes itself as he secured more than 50 percent of valid votes polled. There were 6 other candidates (all independents) in fray — Dr. Arun Hosakoppa, Dr. Nareshchand Hegde, Nanjesh Bennur, T. Bhaskara Shetty, K.K. Manjuanth Kumar and Dr. S.R. Harish Acharya — all of them faired poorly and lost their deposit.

South-West Graduates Constituency

In the South-West Graduates  Constituency, NDA candidate Dr. Dhananjaya Sarji of BJP, won the seat defeating his nearest rival Ayanur Manjunath of Congress by a huge margin of 24,111 votes. While Dr. Sarji secured 37,627 votes, Ayanur Manjunath could muster only 13,516 votes. K. Raghupathi Bhat, a three-time former  Udupi BJP MLA, who had contested the polls as a BJP rebel, came third, securing 7,039 votes. There were 10 candidates in fray including Dr. Sarji and Ayanur Manjunath. Both South-West Teachers and Graduates Constituencies, encompass the districts of Kodagu, Chikkamagalur, Shivamogga, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi and parts of Davangere district.

As far as three other Constituencies are concerned, Congress candidate Ramoji Gowda was ahead of his nearest rival, NDA candidate A. Devegowda of BJP in Bengaluru Graduates Constituency, while Chandrashekar Patil of Congress had taken a lead of over 4,400 votes against his nearest NDA rival Amarnath Patil of BJP after the counting of first preferential votes ended and Congress candidate D.T. Srinivas had taken a lead against his nearest NDA rival Y.A. Narayanaswamy of BJP in South-East Teachers Constituency. However, results of all three seats were yet to be officially declared as counting of votes was still on.