BJP gets majority in K'taka legislative council as 7 elected 'unopposed'

All the seven candidates in the fray for the biennial election to Karnataka legislative council, elected by the members of the legislative assembly, were on Friday declared as elected "unopposed".

The declaration paved the way for the Bharatiya Janata Party to gain a majority in the Upper House as four out of the seven new members are from the ruling party, two from Congress and Janata Dal-Secular one.

The polls for seven seats were scheduled to be held on June 3, but on Friday, the last day to withdraw nominations, only seven candidates were in the fray and all of them were declared elected "unopposed", the returning officer for MLC polls and secretary, Karnataka legislative assembly, MK Vishalakshi, said.

The seven candidates declared elected include the BJP's vice-president and former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi, the party's state secretaries Hemalatha Nayak and S Keshavaprasad, and president of SC Morcha Chalavadi Narayanaswamy.

Congress's M Nagaraju Yadav, former chairman of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, and K Abdul Jabbar, president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee's minority cell and a former MLC; and Janata Dal-Secular's  T A Saravana, a former MLC, were elected in the other three seats.

The election was necessitated as the term of office of seven members expires on June 14.

The seats will be falling vacant due to the retirement of MLCs -- Laxman Savadi and Lahar Singh Siroya of BJP; Ramappa Timmapur, Allum Veerabhadrappa, Veena Achaiah S of Congress; and H M Ramesha Gowda and Narayana Swamy KV of JD-S.

According to official sources, in case election was to be held, each MLC candidate would require a minimum of 29 votes to win.

Based on the strength of each party in the legislative assembly, the BJP can win four seats, Congress two, and JD-S one.

With the election of four BJP candidates, the ruling party will now have a majority in the legislative council until June 15, as numbers may alter thereafter, because results will be declared that day for the June 13 polls to four MLC seats -- two teachers' and two graduates' constituencies.

Before the election outcome for the seven seats was declared, the BJP had 37 members in the 75-member upper house, just one short of a simple majority.

While the Congress had a strength of 26 members, the JD-S had 10 members. There is also one independent member, with the chairman making it 75.