BJP wins three of four Legislative Council seats in Karnataka

Winning three of the four Legislative Council seats in Karnataka, the ruling BJP increased its strength in the upper house to 30 on Tuesday.

The result of the Karnataka South East Graduates' constituency is expected Wednesday.

In Bengaluru Teachers' constituency, BJP's Puttanna defeated AP Ranganath of the JD(S) by 2,228 votes and Congress' Praveen Peter came third. Puttanna, who had joined BJP from JD(S) earlier this year, polled 7,335 votes to Ranganath's 5,107, while Peter got 752 votes.

The BJP retained the Karnataka West Graduates' constituency after the party candidate SV Sankanur beat Congress' RM Kuberappa by 11,409 votes. Sankanur polled 23,857 votes to 12,448 of Kuberappa. Independent candidate Basavaraj Gurikar was a distant third with 6,188 votes.

Sitting MLC of the Karnataka North East Teachers' constituency Sharanappa Mattur was defeated by BJP' Shashil G Namoshi by 3,095 votes. While Mattur polled 6,095 votes, Namoshi got 9,190 votes. The JD(S) was third with 3,757 votes for its candidate Timmayya Purle.

Counting the votes of South East Graduates' constituency started Tuesday evening with results expected by Wednesday noon, authorities said.

Polling for these four constituencies was held October 28.

By winning three seats, the BJP has become the single largest party in the Council, followed by Congress, which has 29 seats that includes the chairman. The JD(S) has 14 seats.