Mysuru, 7 June

JD(S)-BJP alliance candidates won three Legislative Council seats that went to the polls on Thursday.

The counting of votes for the three constituencies took place at Maharani College in Mysuru. JD(S)’ candidate S Vivekananda secured victory in South Teachers’ Constituency while SL Boje Gowda won in South West Teachers’ seat. Dhananjay Sarji from BJP emerged victorious in South West Graduates’ Constituency. They won based on first-preference votes.

Vivekananda won by a margin of 4,622 votes against his Congress rival Marithibbe Gowda. This marked Vivekananda's first election to the Legislative Council and ended Gowda's winning streak in four elections.

Boje Gowda secured his second term as a member of Vidhan Parishad by receiving 9,829 votes compared to his Congress competitor Dr KK Manjunath who got 4,562 votes.

Sarji won from South West Graduate Constituency by garnering 37,627 votes while his Congress opponent Ayanur Manjunath received only 13,516 votes. The rebel BJP candidate Raghupathi Bhatt was defeated with 7,039 votes.

It is worth noting that efforts were made to educate teachers and graduates about proper voting procedures and it was observed that invalid voting was more prevalent during this election. The invalid votes   recorded   1049   in South Teachers Constituency; 821 voters in South West Teachers Constituency; and 5,115 voters in South West Graduates Constituency 

The districts covered under these constituencies are Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar. The total number of teacher voters is 20,549 out of which around 18,989 voted. —Salar News