Karnataka Legislative Council Polls: Three seats see 70% turnout

Three of the four Legislative Council constituencies that went to the polls on Wednesday saw more than 70% voter turnout.

According to official information, the South East Graduate Constituency (Bengaluru) saw voter turnout of 75%, followed by 73.32% in North East Teachers (Kalaburagi), 70.11% in West Graduates (Belagavi) and 66% in Bangalore Teachers constituency.

Elections for the four seats of Karnataka Legislative Council were necessitated with the completion of tenure of four MLCs: Puttanna (then JD(S) and present BJP), R Chowda Reddy Thoopalli (JD(S), S V Sankanur (BJP), and Sharanappa Mattur (Congress). All four MLCs have contested again in the polls on Wednesday.

That apart, the main contenders included JD(S) candidate A P Ranganath from Bangalore Teachers’ constituency, Congress candidate Ramesh Babu and independent candidate D T Srinivasa from South East Graduates, independent candidate Basavaraj Gurikar from Karnataka West Graduates and JD(S) candidate Thimmaiah Purle from North East Teachers constituency.

The elections also saw some rebel candidates and party hoppers. BJP candidate Puttanna cut his ties with JD(S) to join the ruling party. Congress candidate Ramesh Babu, who had several decades-long association with JD(S), recently quit the regional party after allegedly being miffed for not getting an opportunity to contest elections from the party.

Another candidate D T Srinivasa was recently expelled from the BJP for choosing to contest as an independent. As many as 2.3 lakh voters were registered to cast their votes for these elections. The counting of votes will be held on November 2, 2020.