Karnataka Assembly Elections: Will Departmental Politics Come Back?

Polls for seven seats in the Karnataka Legislative Council are being held on June 18. | Photo credit: file photo

Ahead of polling for the seven seats in the Karnataka Legislative Council on June 18, Congress and allied legislators are likely to be herded into the resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru to keep the flock safe.

The Congress is expected to win four seats comfortably, but it is up against the Janata Dal (Secular) for one seat. BJP is expected to win two seats comfortably.

CLP meeting

Congress sources said a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has been called for June 16 evening, after which the MLAs are likely to be asked to stay at the resort. They could be brought directly to the Vidhana Soudha to cast their vote on June 18, sources said.

Another source said it is likely that legislators will be informed about the allocation of votes to candidates, given the awareness of the election being held on the basis of a preferential electoral system and likely to be rigged. It is important to ensure that votes do not become invalid as every vote counts in these elections, the sources said, adding that secret balloting in the election brings concerns to the run-up as cross-voting can be expected.

Voting matrix

Congress candidates KPCC president BK Hariprasad, PV Mohan, Tippannappa Kamaknoor and BS Shivanna along with BJP’s Lingaraj Patil and Raghu Kautilya are expected to win comfortably in the seven-seat election. With each candidate requiring 28 votes, all these candidates are expected to pass comfortably.

The single-seat election remains tantalizingly close, pitting Janata Dal (Secular) candidate Govindraju against Vinay Karthik, who has filed as the fifth Congress candidate.

Additional votes

While the BJP is expected to transfer seven more votes to the JD(S), which has 18 members, the regional party is two votes short of 28 after counting expelled BJP member Basanagoud R. Patil Yatnal.

On the other hand, the Congress seems to have only roughly the required number of 28 votes, including one Raitha Sangh member, two associate members and the support of two expelled BJP members.

Published – 12 Jun 2026 23:42 IST