BJP wrests back NE teachers' segment from Congress

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday wrested back Karnataka North East Teachers' constituency from the Congress.

BJP candidate Shashil G Namoshi won by a margin of 3,130 votes against Congress candidate and sitting MLC Sharanappa Mattur.

While Namoshi secured 10,212 votes, Sharanappa secured 7,082 votes and JD(S) candidate Thimmayya Purle got 3,848 votes. Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Party candidate Vatal Nagaraj managed to get 59 votes and independent candidate Chandrakanth Singe polled 91 votes.

The election to the council seat was held on October 28. The counting, which was supposed to be held on November 2, was postponed to November 10. The counting of votes was held at the Mathematics Department of Gulbarga University. This poll was a prestige issue for the BJP as it has 18 MLAs in Kalyana Karnataka and five MPs.

BJP lead

In the first round, the BJP took a lead by 956 votes. Namoshi secured 3,148 votes. While Mattur got 2,192, Purle obtained 983 votes. Nagaraj got 15 votes. Independent candidate Singe managed to get 26 votes. A total of 636 votes were declared invalid in the first round.

In the second round, the BJP maintained a lead by 1,771 votes. While Namoshi secured 6,042 votes, Mattur got 4,271 votes. Purle took 2,353 votes. While Nagaraj secured 39 votes, Dr Chandrakanth Singe secured 54 votes. Of the total of 14,000 votes counted till the second round, a total of 12,759 votes were declared valid and 1,241 votes as invalid.

The BJP candidate maintained a lead by 3,205 votes at the end of counting of the first preference votes. While Namoshi secured 9,418 votes, Mattur got 6,213 votes. JD(S) candidate Purle obtained 3,812 votes. While Nagaraj got 59 votes, Singe managed to get 91.

Of the 21,437 votes polled in the election, a total of 19,593 votes were declared valid and 1,844 votes as invalid. Based on the valid votes, Election Officer N V Prasad fixed 9,797 votes as winning quota.

Elimination

Vatal Nagaraj, who obtained the lowest (59) votes in the counting of first preference votes, was eliminated from the contest. Of 59 votes, a total of 30 votes were exhausted as they have only first preferential votes. In the remaining 29 votes, The BJP got 13, Congress-six, JD(S)-eight and independent candidate secured two votes.

The election official announced that independent candidate Chandrakanth Singe has also been eliminated as he has secured the second-lowest (91) votes. As he has got 29 first preferential votes only, the BJP got 20, Congress-16 and JD(S) secured 28 second-preferential votes.

Based on the fixation of winning quota, JD(S) candidate Purle, who obtained the lowest 3,848 votes in the first preference was also eliminated from the contest by the election officer.

Counting began

Though the strong room was opened at 8:00 am in the morning, the counting began at around 12:30 pm only after mixing of ballot papers was completed. There were three rounds for the counting of first preferential votes as a total of 21,437 votes were polled.

A total of 1,000 votes were distributed in the seven tables erected for the counting. All precautions were taken at the counting centre in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. Security was also beefed up around the counting centre to prevent any untoward incident.