MLC polls: Congress storms into BJP's bastions

Though the JD(S) - BJP alliance has worked well in South Teachers’ and South West Teachers’ constituencies, the BJP ended up losing the Bangalore Graduates’ and South East Teachers’ constituencies, which it held for more than two decades.

When it comes to numbers, it is a gain for Congress at the Legislative Council.

Elections were held for six Teachers’ and Graduates’ constituencies recently for which the results were announced on Thursday and Friday. Congress has managed to bag three seats.

Earlier, Congress had won Karnataka North-East Graduates’ constituency and managed to retain it with its incumbent MLC Chandrashekar Patil’s victory.

Interestingly, this time Congress snatched the Bangalore Graduates’ and South East Teachers’ constituencies which were bastions of the saffron party.

BJP was winning continuously from the Bangalore Graduates’ constituency for the last 36 years. Ramachandre Gowda represented this segment for four terms and incumbent MLC A Deve Gowda who lost to Congress’ Ramoji Gowda had won once.

The South-East Teachers’ constituency was represented by BJP for more than two decades with Y A Narayaswamy himself winning the seat thrice. This time Narayanaswamy lost to Congress’ D T Srinivas.

However, the sources from the BJP attributed this defeat to internal differences. “There were a few more aspirants for Bangalore Graduates’ seat. Some even started working at the ground a year before, but some Vokkaliga leaders in the party managed to re-nominate A Deve Gowda,” said one of the BJP leaders.

Meanwhile, Congress announced candidature for all the six constituencies at least six months ahead.

“Ramoji Gowda had started his campaigning and registration very early. He had closely worked with MLC Puttanna during his elections for Bangalore Teachers’ constituency which helped him to reach out to the voters,” added the leader.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said that the party was aiming to win all the six seats, but won three.

“We rose from the previous one seat to three this time,” he added.