Savadi may be elected to Council in bypoll to Arshad's seat

The BJP is expected to send Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi to the Legislative Council, for the seat vacated by Congress’ Rizwan Arshad.

This comes with less than a month left for the six-month period, before which a minister who is not a member of either House of the legislature should get elected.

Arshad resigned from the Council after as he got elected to the Assembly, winning the recent bypoll from the Shivajinagar constituency.

While there was speculation earlier that the seat vacated by Arshad would be used to accommodate R Shankar - former minister in the Congress-JD(S) coalition - it is now learnt that Shankar would be elected to the Council in June, when the term of many MLCs end. He will be given a six-year tenure as BJP MLC, sources said.

However, since the Election Commission is yet to announce dates for the Council bypoll for Arshad’s seat, the BJP is also mulling over alternative strategies to ensure that Savadi remains in office. Since the DyCM was sworn-in on August 20, he has time till February 20 to be elected to either of the Houses.

Savadi, who had lost the 2018 Assembly polls against Congress’ Mahesh Kumatahalli - who eventually joined BJP - did not contest the
December bypoll as BJP decided to field Kumatahalli, despite Savadi’s eagerness to contest.

In case elections are not held by Feb 19 - when Savadi completes six months in office without being elected - he will be asked to resign for a day, before being sworn-in again. This will ensure another six months as minister for Savadi, during which he will most likely be elected to the upper house.