Legislative Council polls: All 7 candidates elected unanimously

Naseer Ahmed

Sunil Vallyapure

B K Hariprasad

M T B Nagaraj

Prathap Simha Nayak

Govindaraju

Senior Congress leader B K Hariprasad and BJP’s M T B Nagaraj, one of the defectors who helped the saffron party come to power in Karnataka, were unanimously elected to the Legislative Council along with five others on Monday.

All seven were declared “duly elected” by Legislative Assembly Secretary M K Vishalakshi, the returning officer for the biennial election to the Legislative
Council.

Hariprasad and Naseer Ahmed of the Congress, Nagaraj, R Shankar, Prathap Simha Nayak and Sunil Vallyapure of the BJP and Govinda Raju of the JD(S) are now MLCs.

While Ahmed was an incumbent who will get another term, the six others will replace Jayamma, M C Venugopal, N S Bose Raju, H M Revanna and T A Sharavana and D U Mallikarjuna, whose term ends June 30.

While the election was scheduled for June 29, it was not necessary as only seven candidates were in the fray for the seven seats on Monday, which was the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

With their election as MLCs, Nagaraj and Shankar - who jumped ship to the BJP last year - will now look to become ministers in Yediyurappa’s Cabinet.

Both Nagaraj and Shankar were ministers when they resigned and defected from the Congress-JD(S) coalition. While Nagaraj lost the December 2019 bypolls, Shankar did not contest.

Nagaraj, Shankar and Vallyapure were Yediyurappa’s picks for the Council, whereas Nayak is said to have been backed by BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel.

There were many aspirants in the Congress for the Council berths, but Hariprasad and Ahmed were picked given their experience. Hariprasad is widely believed to counter Siddaramaiah, who leads the party in the
Assembly.

Raju of the JD(S) runs a poultry business in Kolar and by choosing him, a fresh face, the party leadership steered clear of any trouble as there were many aspirants for the ticket.