NDA wins two Karnataka council seats, leads in two more

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won two Karnataka Legislative Council seats Tuesday, October 27, in elections held with paper ballots, and the BJP was leading in two other constituencies.

A.P. Ranganath of the Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), won the Bengaluru Teachers’ seat on an NDA ticket, defeating Congress’s Puttanna by 908 votes. Ranganath polled 10,810 votes to Puttanna’s 9,902. It was Ranganath’s third attempt at the seat.

In the Karnataka North-East Teachers’ constituency, incumbent BJP MLC Shashil Namoshi beat Congress candidate Sharanappa Mattur by 3,297 votes, polling 15,596 to 12,299. The result was a setback for the Congress on the home turf of party president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Ranganath, an advocate and head of the JD(S) legal wing, lost to Puttanna in 2020, when Puttanna contested for the BJP, and again in a 2024 byelection after Puttanna moved to the Congress. Puttanna is a five-time MLC. Ranganath thanked leaders and workers of the BJP and JD(S).

Leaders of both parties credited NDA unity. R. Ashoka, leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, said the win was not an individual’s victory but that of the alliance partners. JD(S) youth wing president Nikhil Kumaraswamy said the result came because both parties worked together.

Counting continued in the South-East Graduates’ and West Graduates’ constituencies. In West Graduates’, the BJP’s S.V. Sankanur led the Congress’s Mohan Limbikayi, 6,483 votes to 4,277, and stayed ahead in the second round.

In South-East Graduates’, the BJP’s K.M. Suresh led the Congress’s Shashi Hulikuntemutt by 1,122 votes, 6,296 to 5,174, after the first round.

This is the first election in the state since the Congress government reintroduced ballot papers.

Nikhil Kumaraswamy, tagging Lok Sabha Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on X, said the Congress could not blame electronic voting machines or the state machinery, since the state government is Congress-run and ballot papers were used, yet the NDA still won. He asked what the Congress’s excuse would be.