The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won four of the five Legislative Council seats for which elections were held on June 26, while JD (S) bagged one seat, the Congress suffered another jolt as it lost all the council seats from teachers, graduates and local bodies constituencies.
The results have come as a rude shock to the Congress, with one of its senior leaders (projected as one of the aspirant for the CM post during assembly elections) and former Minister, H.K. Patil, who was ruling the West Graduates constituency for the past 24 years, lost to the BJP candidate Mohan Limbikai by nearly 4500 votes. H.K. Patil, faced second electoral defeat in about a month. While he lost the Gadag Assembly seat in the recently held Legislative Assembly elections, he failed to retain the council seat now.
BJP candidate Kota Srinivas Poojary won the by-election held for the Local Authorities Constituency ( Dakshin Kannada and Udupi) of the State Legislative Council by defeating his Congress rival Nityananda Mundodi. The BJP has wrested this seat from Congress.
In the Northeast Teachers Constituency, BJP'sShashil G. Namoshi registered a big victory with a record margin of 9,227 votes by defeating his Congress rival Ajagond Annaraya Channappa. Shri Shashil G. Namoshi has won for the third time. In the South-East Graduates constituency, BJP candidate A.H. Shivayogi Swamy won the seat by defeating his JD(S) rival H.S. Shivashankar. In Bangalore Teachers? Constituency, JD(S) candidate Puttanna won against BJP candidate M. Neelaiah by 2,472 votes.
The news of BJP winning Council seats brought a smile on Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa'sface when he was actively participating throughout the day in the day-long workshop ABIDE Summit on June 28 held at NIAS, IISC Bengaluru.
Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa has set 12 months time for improving Bengaluru beyond imagination and he will soon constitute a high power committee within a month to develop the city on par with international standards. NGO'shad suggested for such a panel. Other suggestions that poured in the summit are?roof for all, budgetary allocation for the poor, completion of NICE projects like Metro, Mono Rail, Group Housing etc. at the earliest. He got appreciation from bureaucrats, media and general public for taking initiative in ABIDE Summit-Agenda For Bengaluru Infrastructure Development.
