Legislative Council polls: Congress leads in South Graduates constituency

Congress candidate Madhu Made Gowda and BJP candidate M.V. Ravishankar at Maharani’s Women’s College for Commerce and Management in Mysuru, where counting of votes cast during the elections to the Legislative Council from South Graduates constituency was taken up on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: M.A. Sriram

Congress party’s Madhu Made Gowda was leading in the elections to the Legislative Council from South Graduates’ constituency over his nearest rival M.V. Ravishankar from the BJP during the counting of votes on Wednesday.

Mr. Madhu Made Gowda, who established lead in the initial stages, managed to maintain an edge over his rivals as the counting progressed. JD (S) candidate H.K. Ramu had been pushed to the third position.

The vote counting centre for the Legislative Council polls at Maharani’s Women’s Commerce and Management College in Mysuru on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: M.A. Sriram

Briefing reporters after counting 49,700 votes, which is about the half of the votes polled during the elections held on Monday, Regional Commissioner of Mysuru G.C. Prakash, who is also the Returning Officer, said Mr. Made Gowda had secured 16,137 first preference votes followed by 13,179 first preference votes secured by Mr. Ravishankar, giving the Congress candidate a lead of 2,958 votes.

The JD(S) candidate had polled 8,512 first preference votes followed by 3,142 votes secured by Prasanna Gowda, who was backed by KRRS and a number of like-minded organisations. N.S. Vinay, an independent, had polled 1,890 votes.

The number of votes rejected during the counted was 3,718, said Mr Prakash.

Out of the total 1,41,963 registered voters, a total of 99,304 votes had been cast during the polling held across four districts of the constituency – Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar – on Monday.

Mr. Prakash said the personnel will begin the elimination round of counting if no clear winner emerges during the counting of first preference votes.

The counting of votes began amidst tight security at the Maharani’s Women’s Commerce and Management College in the city on Wednesday. Counting of the preferential votes was conducted by the personnel simultaneously on a total of 28 tables at the venue.

Tight security was thrown around the counting centre with prohibitory orders imposed in a radius of 200 metres from the venue. Barricades had been erected near the roads leading to the counting centre.

A total of 19 candidates were in the fray. Apart from candidates of the mainstream political parties a number of independent candidates and Kannada protagonist Vatal Nagaraj were also in the fray.

The seat was held by JD(S), but the outgoing MLC K.T. Srikante Gowda, who had won during the previous polls held in June 2016, chose to opt out of the race after which the party fielded Mr. Ramu.