Karnataka MLC polls: All seven candidates declared elected unopposed

Bengaluru: All seven candidates in the fray for elections to as many number of seats in Karnataka legislative council, were on Monday declared elected “unopposed”.

Karnataka legislative assembly Secretary M K Visalakshi, who is also the returning officer for the polls, declared the unanimous election of BJP’s MTB Nagaraj, R Shankar, Sunil Vallyapure and Pratap Simha Nayak, Congress’ B K Hariprasad and Naseer Ahmed, and JD(S)’ Govinda Raju to the legislative council.

All the seven candidates were declared elected as they were the only candidates in the fray for election to as many number of seats as on June 22, the last date for withdrawal of nominations, an official statement said.

The voting for biennial elections to seven seats of the legislative council to be elected by the MLAs was scheduled for June 29. The election was necessitated as the term of seven MLCs- Naseer Ahmed, Jayamma, M C Venugopal, N S Bose Raju, H M Revanna (all Congress), T A Sharavana (JD(S)) and independent D U Mallikarjuna- will end June 30.

Based on their strength in the Assembly, while BJP could win four out of seven seats, Congress could win two and JD(S) one. Twenty-eight valid votes of MLAs were required for each candidate to win. However, with no party fielding additional candidates against each other and deciding to contest only on the number of seats they could win based on their strength in the assembly, the election of seven candidates was unopposed, without necessitating the voting process.

BJP’s candidates who have been declared elected include two turncoats- MTB Nagaraj and R Shankar, who helped the party come to power by defecting from Congress-JD(S) coalition. They are now said to be eyeing for ministerial berths during next cabinet expansion. Among the other two from BJP- Sunil Vallyapure was rewarded for abiding by the party decision and giving up his Chincholi assembly seat to a new candidate during polls earlier, while Pratap Simha Nayak is a long time party worker and was said to be backed by state party chief Nalin Kumar Kateel.

Congress candidates who got elected are senior party leader B K Hariprasad and incumbent Naseer Ahmed. Hariprasad”s name was announced by the party, even as his tenure in Rajya Sabha is to end on June 25; while Naseer Ahmed is making a comeback to the legislative council, as he is retiring as MLC on June 30.

In a surprise move, JD(S) had fielded Govinda Raju from Koral as the party candidate for the MLC polls, with an aim to organise and strengthen the party in Kolar and Chikkaballapura region. Now being elected, he will be entering the council for the first time. Incumbent MLC T A Sharavana and outgoing Rajya Sabha member Kupendra Reddy were seen as the prime aspirants for the JD(S) ticket. P