Marithibbegowda, Bhojegowda, Ayanuru enter Council

Marithibbegowda and S L Bhojegowda of JD(S) and Ayanuru Manjunath (BJP) romped home victorious in the Legislative Council election on Wednesday.

The polling for the six seats — three each from the graduates and teachers’ constituencies — were held on June 8.

While Marithibbegowda from the South Teachers’ constituency and Bhojegowda from the South-West Teachers’ constituency, had to wait till all other contestants were eliminated to be declared victors, Ayanuru Manjunath surpassed the quota comfortably with his first preference votes itself to register a victory.

The result of the South-West Graduates’ constituency was declared around 1 am on Wednesday and Manjunath secured 25,250 first preference votes far ahead of the quota of 21,526, fixed to be declared victorious.

Out of the total 67,306 voters enrolled in the constituency, 47,171 votes were polled with 121 NOTA and 3,999 rejected. Thus, the total valid votes were 43,172. While S P Dinesh of the Congress polled 16,157 first preference votes, Aruna Kumar of the JD(S) was far behind with 1,342 votes.

The counting of the votes of the three constituencies, for which the election was held on June 8, was taken up in Mysuru, on Tuesday.

Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council Marithibbegowda, who registered his fourth victory in a row from the same constituency, was the first to be declared victorious, around 8.30 pm.

He won with 11,022 votes in the ninth round of counting after elimination of all contestants, including his nearest rival M Lakshman of the Congress. B Niranjan Murthy of the BJP stood a far third.

In the South Teachers’ constituency, out of the 20,678 voters enrolled, 16,696 exercised their franchise. Among them, 13 were NOTA and 819 were rejected. So, the total valid votes were 15,877. Thus, the quota for victory was 7,933 votes. When the first preference votes were counted on 14 tables, Marithibbegowda secured 6,003 votes, followed by Lakshman with 5,514 votes and Niranjan Murthy 3,931 votes.

Six more independents were in the fray. When Niranjan Murthy was also eliminated, Marithibbegowda was only 7,170 votes from the quota. So, the fight was between Marithibbegowda and Lakshman (6,805).

Bhojegowda, also of the JD(S), from the South-West Teachers’ constituency had to wait till all other contestants were eliminated to be declared winner around 11 pm with 8,647 votes.

Out of the total 16,479 votes cast, 16 were NOTA and 772 were rejected. Thus, the valid votes were 15,707 and the quota for winning was fixed at 7,846. While Bhojegowda polled 6,241 first preference votes, Capt Ganesh Karnik of the BJP secured 5,344 votes and K K Manjunath Kumar of the JD(S) got 2,345 votes.