Karnataka Legislative Council polls on December 27; 25 seats up for grabs

BENGALURU: Elections to 25 seats of the Legislative Council will be held on December 27 as IT & BT minister and leader of the House, S.R. Patil, and a couple of former ministers are scheduled to complete their term in January 2016.

The results of these polls from local authorities’ constituencies would be announced on December 30, according to a communiqué of the Election Commission of India. Tuesday’s announcement of the poll schedule prompted CM Siddaramaiah to call off his visit to France and the United States to invite big ticket companies to invest in Karnataka during the Global Investors’ Meet (GIM) commencing here on February 3.

While leaders of BJP have almost finalised their list of candidates for these polls, those of Congress and JD (S) are exploring the possibility of extending the understanding arrived at to grab posts of Mayor and deputy Mayor of BBMP to these elections as well. Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Digvijay Singh, discussed the parameters to be employed for selection of candidates during his visit here on Sunday and Monday.

Later, two JD (S) MLAs, Zameer Ahmed Khan and Akhanda Srinivasamurthy met Mr Singh at the airport and spoke to him about the benefits of a seat-sharing agreement ahead of the elections. Mr Singh, however, was non-committal and these legislators to await a decision by his party leadership.

Will quit if JD(S) ties up with Congress, threatens HDK

Moves made by some JD(S) leaders for a seat sharing pact with the Congress for the Council polls have hit a roadblock after party state president H.D. Kumaraswamy declared that he would quit his post if an alliance was struck for the 25 MLC seats.

The former CM is annoyed with three legislators, Zameer Ahmed Khan, N Cheluvarayaswamy and Akhanda Srinivasamurthy for pressurising party supremo Deve Gowda to ramp up an alliance with the Congress. Zameer had met AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh in this regard. Meanwhile KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar said there was no proposal for a pact at the moment.

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