The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : R.V. Venkatesh elected MLC

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 15, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

R.V. Venkatesh elected MLC

Staff Reporter

Wins seat with 132 votes to the BJP candidate's 83

NO CONTEST: R.V. Venkatesh, who was elected to the Legislative Council as the Congress candidate on Thursday, with the KPCC President, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, and the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: The Congress candidate, R.V. Venkatesh, sailed through the Legislative Council byelection from the Legislative Assembly constituency on Thursday, with the coalition partners, the Congress and the Janata Dal (S), ensuring his victory with 132 votes. He defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, M.D. Lakshminarayana, who secured 83 votes. Three votes were found to be invalid, bringing the total number of votes cast to 218.

Mr. Venkatesh was elected to the seat vacated by R.V. Devaraj, who unsuccessfully contested the Chamarajpet Assembly byelection held last month. The victory of Mr. Venkatesh was a foregone conclusion since the JD(S) did not insist on fielding a candidate for the seat, which had been held by the Congress. In the 224-member House (besides the nominated member), the BJP has 79 members, the Congress 64, the JD(S) 59, independents 14 and Janata Dal (United) five, apart from one candidate each from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Republican Party of India, and the Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha.

There were seven absentees: Krishna Byregowda, D.K. Shivakumar and the nominated member, Ivan Nigli of the Congress; Santosh Lad of the JD(S); Anil Lad of the BJP; and the independents Rajashekar Sindhanur and Ravikant Patil.

The party position in the 75-member Upper House after Thursday's election is as follows: Congress (45), JD-S (10), BJP (10), JD-U (3), independents (3), vacant (3) and Chairman (1).

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