Legislative Council polls: Congress leads in South Graduates constituency
The Hindu
MYSURU
Congress party’s Madhu Made Gowda was leading in the elections to the Legislative Council from South Graduates’ constituency over his nearest rival M.V. Ravishankar from the BJP during the counting of votes on Wednesday.
Mr. Madhu Made Gowda, who established lead in the initial stages, managed to maintain an edge over his rivals as the counting progressed. JD (S) candidate H.K. Ramu had been pushed to the third position.
Briefing reporters after counting 49,700 votes, which is about the half of the votes polled during the elections held on Monday, Regional Commissioner of Mysuru G.C. Prakash, who is also the Returning Officer, said Mr. Made Gowda had secured 16,137 first preference votes followed by 13,179 first preference votes secured by Mr. Ravishankar, giving the Congress candidate a lead of 2,958 votes.
The JD(S) candidate had polled 8,512 first preference votes followed by 3,142 votes secured by Prasanna Gowda, who was backed by KRRS and a number of like-minded organisations. N.S. Vinay, an independent, had polled 1,890 votes.
The number of votes rejected during the counted was 3,718, said Mr Prakash.
Out of the total 1,41,963 registered voters, a total of 99,304 votes had been cast during the polling held across four districts of the constituency – Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar – on Monday.
Mr. Prakash said the personnel will begin the elimination round of counting if no clear winner emerges during the counting of first preference votes.