Congress party scripted history in the elections to the Legislative Council from South Graduates’ constituency on June 16 by recording its first-ever victory from the constituency. Congress candidate Madhu Madegowda defeated his nearest rival M V Ravishankar of the BJP.
After the counting of preferential votes, Mr Madegowda had secured 45,275 votes against the BJP candidate’s 33,878 votes. JD(S) candidate H K Ramu was pushed to the third position with 19,360 votes.
Mr Madegowda was formally declared elected after about 29 hours of counting, which began at 8 am on June 15. Regional Commissioner G C Prakash, who is also the Returning Officer, handed over the certificate of election to Mr Madegowda at the counting centre on June 16 afternoon.
Even before a formal announcement of the result, Congress supporters had gathered near the counting centre and began celebrating.
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. When no candidate secured the required number of first preference votes — half of the valid votes plus one — officials took up the elimination rounds of counting.
The election result is considered a setback to the JD(S), which had won during the previous election 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 election result indicates the direction in which the electoral winds were blowing ahead of the Assembly elections in 2023.
Apart from thanking 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.
Mr Dhruvanarayan termed the victory as a ‘gift’ to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to arrive in Mysuru for the International Day of Yoga on June 21. He said voters of the graduates’ constituency had given a ‘gift’ to the Prime Minister for reportedly suggesting that unemployed youth should sell ‘pakoras’ for a living.
