Council polls give Congress chance to seal Upper House majority

Bengaluru: The Election Commission has announced polls to seven legislative council seats in Karnataka, a prospect that could boost governing Congress’ tally in the Upper House. The electorate will comprise MLAs.The seven legislators whose terms end are Govind Raju, Naseer Ahmed, BK Hariprasad, Tippanappa Kamakanoor from Congress and Prathap Simha Nayak, Sunil Vallyapure and MTB Nagaraj from BJP.Formal notification for the June 18 polls will be issued on June 1, while June 8 is the last date for filing nominations.The election assumes significance as it could hand Congress complete control of the council. The governing party has struggled over the past three years to push key legislation because of a lack of numbers in the Upper House.Given the current strength of 222 members in the assembly — excluding two vacancies caused by the death of planning and statistics minister D Sudhakar and the disqualification of Dharwad MLA Vinay Kulkarni following his conviction in a murder case — a candidate requires 28 votes to win under the preferential voting system.Congress, with an effective strength of 135 including the speaker, is comfortably placed to win four seats. But the party is weighing the possibility of fielding a fifth candidate, banking on surplus votes, support from independents and possible backing from expelled BJP legislators.The governing party is expected to reserve 112 first-preference votes for its four assured candidates, leaving it with 23 additional votes. It is confident of support from independents Darshan Puttanaiah of Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha, Latha Mallikarjun from Harapanahalli and KH Puttaswamy Gowda from Gauribidanur.The party is also hopeful of support from expelled BJP MLAs ST Somashekar and Shivaram Hebbar, both considered close to Congress. Expelled BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal remains a wildcard.On the opposition side, BJP, with 63 MLAs, is expected to comfortably win two seats. But a third candidate backed by the BJP-JD(S) combine may fall short, with the alliance estimated to have only 25 votes — three short of the winning mark.If Congress succeeds in winning five seats, its tally in the 75-member council will rise to 38, crossing the majority mark on its own. The BJP-JD(S) tally would then fall to 35. Independent MLC Lakkan Jarkiholi is also expected to back Congress.Such an outcome could pave the way for Congress to elect its own chairman and deputy chairman in the Upper House, consolidating the Siddaramaiah-led govt’s control over the legislature. Currently, Basavaraj Horatti of BJP is the council chairman.