Karnataka Council polls wind to a close, results today
Counting of votes will be held in the district headquarters.
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-12-30 02:25 GMT
Bengaluru: Who will wield power in the Karnataka Legislative Council after counting of votes for the 25 seats from local body constituencies on Wednesday? Will the ruling Congress win a majority of seats and ensure the exit of Council chairman D.H. Shankaramurthy (BJP) and deputy chairman Marithibbe Gowda (JD-S)? Or will the Opposition parties, by virtue of a secret poll pact, humble the Congress and retain the upper hand in the Upper House by blocking crucial legislation?
The fate of prominent politicians including IT-BT minister S.R. Patil and Congress rebel and former minister Jayaprakash Hegde, will be decided on Wednesday. Counting of votes will be held in the district headquarters. Both Congress and BJP have fielded candidates in 20 constituencies each while in five double-seat constituencies, they have fielded a single candidate each.
Ballot papers have been used for this election instead of EVMs and members have second preferential votes, which could delay the announcement of results.
A candidate who obtains the highest number of first preferential votes, will be declared elected and the second preferential votes will not be taken into consideration in single seat constituencies.
Who has the edge?
In the 75-member Upper House, Congress has 28 seats, BJP- 30, JD(S) 12 and 4 are independents. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had expressed confidence that the Congress would win at least 15 of the 25 local body constituencies which went to polls while BJP is keen on improving its tally of local body seats from 7 to 11.
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