Mysuru: JD(S) candidate and Legislative Council Deputy Chairman Marithibbegowda recorded his fourth consecutive victory by winning the biennial election from the South Teachers Constituency.

The election to the South Teachers Constituency, comprising four districts — Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar and Hassan — was held on June 8 and the counting of votes was taken up yesterday at Maharani’s Women’s Commerce and Management College, Valmiki Road junction, Vinayakanagar (Paduvarahalli).

Out of the 20,678 voters enrolled for South Teachers Constituency, 16,696 had exercised their franchise. Among them, 13 were NOTA and 819 were rejected, leaving 15,877 valid votes, following which the quota for victory was 7,933 votes.

After all the first preference votes were counted, Marithibbegowda secured 6,003 votes, followed by Lakshmana of the Congress with 5,514 votes and B. Niranjanmurthy of the BJP with 3,931 votes.

The six independents in the fray, fared poorly with A.H. Gopalkrishna bagging 7, D.K. Tulasappa 2, Dr. S.B.M. Prasanna 102, Dr. Mahadev 295, M.N. Ravishankar 4 and P.A. Sharath Raj getting 6 votes.

As no candidate secured the required number of votes, the counting of second and subsequent preference of votes was taken up, when B. Niranjanmurthy of the BJP was eliminated, thus leaving the fight only between Marithibbegowda and M. Lakshmana. After the counting of second preference votes, Marithibbegowda got 7,170 votes, while his only remaining rival Lakshmana got 6,805 votes.

As Marithibbegowda still failed to reach the quota mark of 7,933 votes, M. Lakshmana, who trailed him by 365 votes, was eliminated, leaving Marithibbegowda victorious, who ultimately bagged 11,022 votes after all the rounds of counting.

Soon as Marithibbegowda was declared the winner, JD(S) workers began to celebrate. MLC K.T. Srikantegowda, city JD(S) President K.T. Cheluvegowda, former Mayor R. Lingappa, Corporators K.V. Mallesh, SBM Manju and Shivanna were present.