Congress wins MLC seat in Karnataka, cracks surface in JD (S)-BJP coalition

In a major setback to the JD (S)-BJP coalition Government in Karnataka, the Opposition Congress party managed to win four seats during the exciting elections to the Legislative Council from the Assembly, capitalizing on the cracks in the ruling coalition.

Though the BJP also won four seats on the basis of its numerical strength in the Karnataka Assembly, the victory of four Congress candidates against the three belonging to the JD (S) has come as an embarrassment to the ruling coalition.

During the elections to the eleven vacant seats of the Legislative Council, all the three major political parties had fielded four candidates each. But, the Opposition Congress managed to take sweet revenge on Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy by defeating the JD (S) candidate Amarnath Shetty. Congress party’s V R Sudarshan romped home to victory.

The Congress party’s upset victory came about after nine rebel JD (S) MLAs led by former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah threw in their lot with the Congress. The BJP’s failure to allocate its second preference votes to the JD (S) candidate put paid to the ruling party’s hopes of winning four seats.

The results have also given a moral victory to Siddaramaiah and his group, who defied the JD (S) whip and supported the Congress in a bid to settle his long-standing political differences with former Prime Minister and JD (S) national President H D Deve Gowda.

The BJP, which had the numbers to ensure the victory of all its four candidates without any hiccup, however, had to keep its fingers crossed till the results were announced as its fourth candidate Vimala Gowda fell short of the required number of first preference votes during the first round of counting. The party leaders heaved a sigh of relief when Vimla Gowda scraped through after the second preference votes were counted.

A jubilant Congress party termed its success in the elections as a “defeat for communal forces”. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President M Mallikarjun Kharge said the election results indicated the “beginning of the end of the JD (S)-BJP rule in Karnataka”.

Meanwhile, the JD (S) spokesman Y S V Datta attributed the defeat of its fourth candidate to a “communication gap” with its coalition partner the BJP.

The victorious Congress candidates are K C Kondaiah, Arshad Ali, Motamma and V R Sudarshan. The triumphant BJP candidates are D S Veeraiah, Thontadarya, Karunakar Reddy and Vimla Gowda. The JD (S) candidates who were elected to the Legislative Council are H C Neeravari, Abdul Azeem and Chikkamadu.