JOIN USSenior Congress leader C Narayanaswamy on Thursday won the Congress primary for the Bangalore North constituency.
The AICC election committee headed by Sonia Gandhi is likely announce him as the party candidate for the parliamentary seat. Narayanaswamy managed to secure the required 50 per cent of the total votes polled, after adding the second preference votes to the first preference votes.
A total of 359 valid votes were polled in the election. A candidate requires to secure at least 180 votes (50 per cent) to win.
The election was conducted at a resort in R T Nagar.
None of the four aspirants in the fray – C Narayanaswamy, G C Chandrashekar, M V Rajeev Gowda and N L Narendra Babu – secured the 50 per cent of the first preference votes. Hence, the election authorities counted the second preference votes.
Narayanaswamy, who got 177 first preference votes – three short of the requirement – won the polls by securing 189 votes.
Chandrashekar got 123 votes, Rajeev Gowda 69 and Narendra Babu 40.5 votes. There were a total 478 voters. About 70 voters, mostly from the Yeshwantpur Assembly constituency, were not allowed to exercise their franchise as they failed to register their names before the commencement of the process at 11 am. S T Somashekar, Yeshwantpur MLA, was one among of them. The election authorities refused to allow them to vote despite repeated requests.
The result of the primary will be forwarded to the AICC election committee. If the party decides to field Narayanaswamy, he will take on BJP’s D V Sadananda Gowda.
Worked with Siddu
Narayanaswamy, who was with the erstwhile Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (Secular), has worked with Siddaramaiah when he was with the Janata Pariwar. He joined the Congress last year.
He has represented the then Bangalore North parliamentary constituency in 1996 (before the delimitation of constituencies in 2008) as a Janata Dal candidate. He unsuccessfully contested the Assembly elections from Shivajinagar in 2004 and from Byatarayanapura in 2008 as the JD(S) candidate.
Narayanaswamy said the internal election had helped him to know the party workers in Bangalore North better. “I am like a symbol in the coming Lok Sabha elections. My party is my strength. I am confident of emerging victorious,” he said.