Bengaluru, Dec. 14: It is a major boost to the Karnataka Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai’s image with the ruling BJP succeeding in improving its tally in Upper House by winning 12 of the 20 seats it contested on Tuesday while the Congress party succeeded in retaining its voter base by winning 11 seats of the 20 seats it contested but it was a dismal outing by the Janata Dal (S) which won a lone seat from Hassan of the six seats it had contested.
The biennial Election to the Karnataka Legislative Council from 20 Local Authorities’ Constituencies for 25 seats were necessitated due to retirement of sitting members in January 2022 and the Election Commission of India had declared elections to these seats on November 28 and polling was held to these seats on December 10.
Mr Bommai who took over as the Chief Minister on July 28, had of late come under severe criticism by his own partymen who had been subtly rooting for his replacement ahead of Assembly polls in 2023. The murmurs had grown stronger after the ruling BJP lost in Hangal Assembly constituency in by-polls held in November, which is part of his home district.
The opposition Congress has lost by the narrowest of margins in this election to ruling BJP for instance in Chikkamagaluru, where Deputy Chairperson of the Legislative Council, M. K. Pranesh of the BJP succeeded in scraping through by just six votes against his rival Congress candidate, Gayatri Shanthe Gowda is a case in point, while in Tumkuru, Congress won the seat after five rounds of preferential vote counting.
Out of the 25 MLCs who are retiring in January 2022, 14 are from Congress, seven from BJP and four from JD(S). The Karnataka Legislative council has 75 seats and the ruling BJP has 32 seats, seven short of the majority mark. Despite improving its tally by five seats (12 seats in this election 2021), the ruling party still falls short of a majority, which means they will have to depend on the JD(S) to get any legislation cleared through the council.
The JD(S) lone seat came from JD(S) president, H. D. Deve Gowda’s hometown Hassan, from where his grandson, Suraj Revann had contested. With his victory, Mr Gowda’s eighth family member made an entry into politics.
Apart from Mr Gowda, his two sons, both daughters in law (Mrs Anitha Kumaraswamy and Mrs Bhavani Revanna) and three grandsons (Nikhil Kumaraswamy, Prajwal Revanna and Suraj Revanna) have entered into politics. Mr Suraj is his third grandson to make an entry into politics by winning MLC polls.
With Mr Suraj’s victory, the entire Hassan district turned out to be the fiefdom of Mr Gowda family, as his son and former minister H. D. Revanna is a legislator from Holenarsipura Assmebly constiteucny, his younger son, Prajwal Revanna is a Lok Sabham member from Hassan and now Mr Suraj is MLC, while Mrs Bhavani Revanna is Hassan Zilla Panchyat member and the head of the standing committee on education and health. Besides this, former prime minister Mr Gowa himself is a Rajya Sabha member.
Whereas his, another son and former chief minister, H. D. Kumaraswamy is a floor leader in the Assembly, while his wife, Anitha Kumaraswamy is a legislator, from Ramanagara constituency and their son, Nikhil Kumaraswamy contested and lost Mandaya Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
On his party’s dismal show, JD(S) Legislature Party leader Kumaraswamy said, “I am disappointed that people’s power has lost to money power. We have suffered a setback because of the vociferous use of money by the national parties. We fought on moral grounds.”
In contrast to this, Congress party’s working presidents – Satish Jarakiholi and Eshwar Khandre – succeeded in ensuring their party candidates’ victories in their home districts – Belagavi and Bidar, despite their siblings Lakhan Jarakiholi and Prakash Khandre – respectively were in fray. In Belagavi with the Lakhan entering the fray, he would be the fourth brother from Jarakiholi family to enter politics in the district while Prakash Khandre contested on BJP ticket.
With the five bicameral constituencies existing in Vijayapura, Belavagavi, Dharwad, Dakshina Kannada and Mysore-Chamarajanagar districts as a result of this, total number seats add up to 25 seats of these 20 constituencies.
The composition of 75 members of the Legislative Council is as follows: 25 are elected by the Karnataka Legislative Assembly members, 25 are elected by local authorities (to which results were announced on Tuesday), Seven members each are elected from Graduates and Teachers constituencies while 11 members are nominated by the Governor of Karnataka.
