Congress looks to gain majority in Karnataka Legislative Council after polls to 18 seats

A dozen seats of the Legislative Council are falling vacant by June 17, triggering speculations on who would be nominated by BJP and Congress for elections to fill these seats.

The Congress is looking to gain majority in the House after the election to these seats and the six teachers' and graduates' constituencies.  

Eleven members elected from the Assembly will be retiring on June 17. Of these, 6 are from BJP, 4 from Congress and 1 from JD(S).

One seat is vacant following the resignation of former CM Jagadish Shettar, who quit Congress and contested the Lok Sabha elections from Belgaum on a BJP ticket.

The Congress is likely to re-nominate leader of the House and Minister N S Boseraju, CM’s political secretary K Govindaraju, besides members Aravind Kumar Arali and Harish Kumar.

The names of CM Siddaramaiah’s son Dr Yathindra, Karadi Sanganna, who quit BJP and joined the ruling party, Youth Congress president B V Srinivas, Deputy CM D K Shivakumar’s close aide Vijay Mulgund, former CM Devaraj Urs’ grandson Suraj Hegde, Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee president Pushpa Amarnath, former Council chairman B L Shankar and former MLC K P Nanjundi are doing the rounds for the other seats.

Former ministers C T Ravi and J C Madhuswamy are speculated to get nominated from the BJP. The party is likely to renominate N Ravikumar, who is one of the retiring members.

The Congress, which has 136 members in the Assembly, can easily win eight of the 12 Council seats from there, while BJP and JD(S) can secure three and one, respectively.

At present, there are 70 members including chairman, in the 75-strong House. The BJP has 32, Congress 29, JD(S) seven and one Independent.