In their first electoral outing as National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners in Karnataka, the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) suffered a setback on Tuesday, as their nominee was defeated by Congress candidate P. Puttanna, who retained his seat from the Bangalore Teachers’ constituency in the Legislative Council.
From all three parties
In the keenly contested election, former Deputy Chairman of Legislative Council and four-time MLC Mr. Puttanna polled 8,260 votes, defeating Janata Dal (Secular) candidate A.P. Ranganath by a margin of 1,507 votes. Mr. Ranganath, who lost to Mr. Puttanna for the second time in a row, polled 6,753 votes. Mr. Puttanna will get a three-year term. With the result, Mr. Puttanna has recorded wins to the Legislative Council from all the three parties.
While the polling had taken place on February 16, counting was taken up on Tuesday. According to the Election Commission, a total of 16,541 votes had been polled of which 1,239 votes were declared invalid.
What necessitated polls
The Bangalore Teachers’ constituency seat had fallen vacant in March as incumbent Mr. Puttanna, who was earlier elected to the Council on BJP ticket in 2020, quit BJP and resigned from his membership from the House to join Congress in March 2023. He later unsuccessfully contested against BJP leader S. Suresh Kumar from Rajajinagar constituency in the Assembly elections held in May 2023. Before joining the BJP in 2020, Mr. Puttanna was a member of the Council elected on JD(S) ticket.
The run-up to the election saw BJP legislator from Yeshwantpur and former Minister S.T. Somashekar being accused of working for the Congress nominee instead of the NDA nominee.
Council strength
With the win, the strength of the ruling Congress will increase to 30 in the 75-member Upper House while BJP and JD(S) have 34 and 8 seats, respectively, together controlling a majority. While another seat remains vacant, the House has one independent and the chairman.
