The by-elections were necessitated by the resignation of former BJP leaders Baburao Chinchansur, Laxman Savadi, and R Shankar.
Congress announces former CM Jagadish Shettar, Minister N S Boseraju and former MLC Tippanappa Kamakanoor as its candidates for the legislative council by-elections on Monday.
The Congress, on Monday, 19 June, decided to field former Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar as one of its three candidates for the upcoming bypolls to the state’s Legislative Council.
The by-elections were necessitated after the resignation of former BJP MLCs Baburao Chinchansur, Laxman Savadi, and R Shankar from the council after the saffron party denied them tickets to contest the Assembly polls held on 10 May.
Tuesday, 20 June, is the last date for filing nomination papers for the 30 June bypolls. The results will be announced on the same day.
The Congress is the first party to announce its candidates for the Legislative Council bypolls.
Besides Shettar, Minister for Minor Irrigation and Science and Technology NS Boseraju and former MLC Tippannappa Kamaknoor will contest the by-elections from the Congress.
Former CM from BJP & lingayat leader @JagadishShettar to be one of @INCIndia‘s candidates for upcoming MLC polls in Karnataka. Minister @NsBoseraju who is in the @siddaramaiah cabinet despite not being a legislator yet to also contest. @TheSouthfirst pic.twitter.com/IkrjlxfdNr
— Anusha Ravi Sood (@anusharavi10) June 19, 2023
In the newly elected Karnataka Legislative Assembly, the Congress has 135 seats, the BJP 66, JD(S) 19 and one seat each for the Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodya Karnataka Paksha. Two others are independents.
Shettar, a former BJP chief minister, unsuccessfully contested the state Assembly polls on a Congress ticket from the Hubballi-Dharwad Central constituency.
He lost to his nearest rival, the BJP’s Mahesh Tenginakai, by a margin of 34,289 votes. He managed to get only 38 percent of the vote share.
“It is the party that has decided to field me as its candidate in the Legislative Council by-elections. I have not demanded a ticket,” he told South First.
“The central leadership had promised me a ticket. Accordingly, it has announced its candidature. It has also assured me that it will strengthen my position in the cadre and the government. It will also add more responsibility to me in the coming days,” he said.
On 14 June, South First reported that the Congress was likely to field Shettar as one of its candidates for the Legislative Council bypolls.
Ahead of the Assembly polls, he ended his over-four-decade-long affiliation with the BJP after its central leadership denied him a ticket from the same seat. He pledged his allegiance to the Congress on 18 April.
Senior Congress leader Boseraju is neither an MLA nor an MLC, but was inducted into the Siddaramaiah Cabinet.
It was expected that he would contest the Legislative Council by-elections.
“The party has to bless me a ticket as I am part of the Cabinet without being an MLA or MLC. I am confident that the party will win all the three seats in the by-elections,” he told South First earlier.
He was the AICC secretary in charge of the Telangana Congress unit.
He represented the Manvi Assembly segment from 1999 to 2008, and was a member of the Legislative Council for one term — from 2014 to 2020.
In a surprise, the Congress announced Koli community leader and former MLC Tippannappa Kamaknoor as the third candidate for the Legislative Council bypolls.
Kamakanoor hails from the Kalaburagi district. The Koli community is dominant in Kalaburagi and Yadgir.
He was also an aspirant from the Yadgir’s Gurmitkal Assembly seat, which AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge represented for a record eight times.
“He has been given a ticket for the Legislative Council bypolls as he hails from the Koli community. He is a loyal party worker and was also a former MLC. He asked for a ticket from the Gurumitkal seat in the Assembly elections, but the party fielded Baburao Chinchansur,” said Boseraju.
According to sources, he is a close aide of Kharge. His wife and son were deputy mayor and corporator, respectively, in the Kalaburagi City Corporation.
The Legislative Council elections are similar to those of the Rajya Sabha elections. The members of the Council are not elected directly by the people.
The Legislative Council is a permanent House with one-third of the members retiring every two years.
According to Article 171 of the Constitution, the strength of any Council shall not exceed one-third of the strength of the state’s Legislative Assembly.
The Karnataka Assembly has 224 members, which means the state’s Legislative Council has 75 members.
The members of the Legislative Council comprise people elected through five different constituencies.
Of the 75 members of the Karnataka Legislative Council, 25 are elected by local authorities, 25 by the Legislative Assembly members, seven each by graduates and teachers, and 11 members are nominated by the Governor.
The election process for the Council follows a system of proportional representation using the single transferable vote (STV). This election is different from Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
Each voter ranks the list of candidates in order of preference. In the ballot paper, the voter has to cast the vote “1” for the most preferred candidate, “2” for their second preference, and so on.
The value of the total valid votes is first tallied and then divided by the total number of seats to be filled. One is added to the quotient, ignoring the remainder.
The resulting number is the quota of first-preference votes required to get elected.
In case none of the candidates gets the required quota of first-preference votes, a process of vote transfer takes place, successively eliminating those who get the least number of first-preference votes.
Apr 28, 2024
Apr 28, 2024
Apr 28, 2024
Apr 28, 2024
Apr 28, 2024
Apr 28, 2024
