Published Jun 18, 2026 | 9:29 AM ⚊ Updated Jun 18, 2026 | 9:29 AM
The Vidhana Soudha the seat of the Karnataka Legislative Council. (Wikimedia Commons)
Synopsis: The biennial elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council are being held on 18 June to fill seven seats vacated by members whose terms end on 30 June 2026. The votes will be counted after the conclusion of the polling process on the same day.
The biennial elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council by Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) are being held on Thursday, 18 June. The elections will fill seven seats vacated by members whose terms end on 30 June 2026.
Those retiring include Govinda Raju, Naseer Ahmed, N Nagaraju (MT B), Prathap Simha Nayak K, Tippannappa, Sunil Vallyapur, and BK Hariprasad.
The polling began at 9 am on Thursday and will end at 4 pm. The votes will be counted after the conclusion of the polling process on the same day.
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The Congress has fielded five candidates: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief BK Hariprasad, Tippannappa Kamaknoor, PV Mohan, Shivanna Malavalli (BS Shivanna) and Vinay Karthik Prakash. The BJP has fielded two candidates, Lingaraj Patil and Raghu Kautilya.
The JD(S) has fielded Govindraju as its candidate, although it lacks the number of votes required for him to win. While each candidate requires a minimum of 28 votes to win, the JD(S) has only 18 members in the Legislative Assembly.
The Congress and the BJP are expected to comfortably win four and two seats, respectively, based on their strength in the Assembly.
Currently, the number of legislators in the 224-member Lower House is 222 due to the death of one Congress member, D Sudhakar, and the disqualification of another Congress member, Vinay Kulkarni, following his conviction in a murder case.
Congress has 134 MLAs, while the BJP has 63 members.
The support of three Independent candidates, Latha Mallikarjun, KH Puttaswamy Gowda, and Darshan Puttannaiah, along with two rebel and now-expelled BJP members, ST Somashekhar and Shivaram Hebbar, is crucial to the outcome of the seventh seat.
