The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BJP will be a minority in the Upper House

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Friday, May 30, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BJP will be a minority in the Upper House

K.N. Venkatasubba Rao and K.V. Subramanya

This will be the case even after pending elections

In the 75-member House, presently the Congress is the single largest party with 33 members

BANGALORE: Although the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to form the Government and enjoy a simple majority in the Legislative Assembly, the ruling party would be in the minority in the Upper House even after the pending nominations and elections to the Legislative Council from the Assembly, teachers, graduates and Local Authority constituencies.

With the posts of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Council falling vacant on June 30, the BJP would have to struggle to ensure that its candidates make it to the two important posts in the changed political scenario.

Chairman B.K. Chandrashekar of the Congress and the Deputy Chairman Sachidananda L. Khot of Janata Dal (Secular) will retire on June 30. Five other MLCs, elected along with them from the Legislative Assembly, will also retire on June 30.

Besides, two more seats from the Assembly constituencies and one from Local Authority constituency are likely to fall vacant as sitting MLCs Arvind Limbavali and Shobha Karndlaje of the BJP, and Satish L. Jarkiholi (JD-S) may have to resign their seats in view of their election to the Assembly.

Meanwhile, the term of H.K. Patil (Congress), H.S. Shivashankar and Puttanna (both JD-S) and Shashil G. Namoshi (BJP), will also end on June 30. Mr. Patil is the Leader of the Opposition in the Council.

Calendar of events

The Election Commission has already announced the calendar of events for the election to the four seats, two each from graduates and teachers’ constituencies, represented by Mr. Patil and Mr. Shivashankar and Mr. Namoshi and Mr. Puttanna respectively.

On the other, the nomination of five MLCs has been pending since June 20, 2007, following the expiry of the tenure of Prabhkar B. Kore, B.A. Hasanabba, L. Hanumanthaiah, Umashree and M.D. Ramesh Raju, who were nominated by the S.M. Krishna Government. The new government will have the prerogative to nominate five persons of its choice to these vacant seats.

Two seats have fallen vacant following the resignation of Basavaraj S. Bommai (JD-U) and the death of Blasius D’Souza (Congress), who had been elected from the Local Authority constituencies. Even if the BJP manages to win the maximum seats in the elections from all the constituencies and also enlist the support of the five nominated members, it would still remain a minority in the Council.

Numbers

In the 75-member House, presently the Congress is the single largest party with 33 members.

While the Janata Dal (S) and the BJP have 14 members each, Janata Dal (United) has two members and four are independent.

While seven seats are vacant, a seat is occupied by the Chairman.

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