12 in fray for 11 Council seats

A keen contest is on the cards for eleven seats in the Legislative Council on June 11, with 12 candidates in the fray.

Members of the Assembly form the electoral college. Monday was the last date for withdrawal of nominations. A preferential voting system is adopted for the polls.

The nomination papers of four candidates which had been kept pending on Saturday, following objections by the BJP were declared to be in order by the Returning Officer (RO) and Assembly Secretary P Omprakash after an hearing.

BJP in its complaint had objected to the submission of  nomination papers on document sheets of Rs 20 denomination instead of Rs 50 denomination by Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi (Congress), Syed Mudeer Aga (JD-S) and Byrathy Suresh (Ind).

The ruling party had also objected to Congress nominee K Govindaraju’s nomination on the ground that he attracted the office of profit clause in the wake of holding the office of the Chairperson of Karnataka Olympic Association (KOA).

The RO, after an hearing, declared that the Karnataka Stamps Act 1957 provides for submission of affidavits on Rs 20 stamp paper.

Omprakash also concluded that KOA is an elected body and the candidate did not attract the office of profit clause.

Numbers game

By virtue of their numerical strength in the Assembly, the BJP can win six seats, the Congress three and JD(S) one. As many as 19 votes are required to win one seat.
The BJP will be left with eight surplus votes, the Congress with 14 and the JD(S) with seven.

There are seven independent candidates. BJP MLAs Y Sampangi (convicted in bribery case) and Nandeesh Reddy (whose election as MLA was annulled by the High Court) will not be able to cast their vote.

If there is no cross-voting or invalidation of votes then all the six BJP candidates – Vimala Gowda, D S Veeraiah, B J Puttaswamy, Raghunath Rao Malkapure, Somanna Bevinamarada and M B Bhanuprakash – will easily sail through.

The Congress will have no difficulty in ensuring the victory of its first three candidates – Motamma, K Govindaraju and Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi. So, does Syed Mudeer Aga of the JD(S).

The contest will boil down to a direct fight between Congress’ fourth candidate M R Seetharam and independent candidate Byrathy Suresh.
The JD(S) has decided to allot its seven surplus to Suresh, who has also the support of five independent MLAs.

But, Suresh will fall short of seven votes out of the 19 first preferential votes that are required to win the polls.

The Congress is planning to issue a whip directing all its MLAs to cast their second preferential vote to Seetharam. Following is the strength of political parties in the 225-member State Assembly: BJP: 119, Congress: 71, JD(S): 26, Ind: 7, Speaker and the nominated.




Candidates

* BJP: Vimala Gowda, D S Veeraiah, B J Puttaswamy, Raghunath Rao Malkapure, Somanna Bevinamarada and M B Bhanuprakash
* Congress: Motamma, K Govindaraju, Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi and M R Seetharam
* JD(S): Syed Mudeer Aga
Independent: Byrathy Suresh