The Congress party scripted history in the elections to the Legislative Council from South Graduates constituency on Thursday by registering its first-ever victory with party candidate Madhu Made Gowda defeating his nearest BJP rival M.V. Ravishankar.
After the conclusion of the last round of counting of preferential votes on Thursday, Mr. Made Gowda had secured 46,082 votes against M.V. Ravishankar’s 33,878 votes. The JD(S) candidate H.K. Ramu was pushed to the third position with 19,360 votes.
The Congress candidate was formally declared elected after about 29 hours of counting which began at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Regional Commissioner G.C. Prakash, who is also the Returning Officer, handed over the certificate of election to Mr. Made Gowda at the counting centre on Thursday afternoon.
Even before a formal announcement of the election results, crowds of Congress supporters gathered near the counting centre on Thursday and broke into celebrations.
Mr. Made Gowda, who paid a visit to the Congress party office in Mysuru after he was declared elected, said he dedicates his victory to his late father and farmers’ leader G. Made Gowda, who had served as an MLA and MP.
“I dedicate the victory to my father who would have been very happy had he been alive today”, he said before expressing his gratitude to the people who had voted for him in the elections.
A total of 19 candidates were in the fray for the elections to the Legislative Council from South Graduates constituency, which is spread across Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar districts.
Out of the total electorate of 1,41,963, as many as 99,304 votes were cast in preferential system of voting during the polls held on Monday. When no candidate secured the required number of first preference votes – half of the valid votes plus one – the officials took up the elimination rounds of counting.
Prasanna Gowda, an independent backed by KRRS and other like-minded organisations, polled 7,587, while N.S. Vinay, another independent, secured 3,864 votes. While SDPI’s Rafathulla Khan bagged 788 votes, Kannada protagonist Vatal Nagaraj polled 516 votes.
The elections results were considered a setback to the JD(S), which had won the elections during the previous polls held in June 2016. Its outgoing MLC K.T. Srikante Gowda opted out of the race and the party fielded former president of Karnataka State Government Employees Association H.K. Ramu, who finished third.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president R Dhruvanarayan attributed the victory to a well-organised campaign strategy adopted by the party.
He thanked the educated voters of the constituency for choosing the right candidate and said the elections results indicated the direction in which the electoral winds were blowing ahead of the Assembly elections next year.
Apart from thanking the party leaders including former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar for their efforts, Mr. Dhruvanarayan also thanked JD(S) MLC Marithibbe Gowda for openly campaigning in favour of the Congress candidate.
