JD(S) loses council seat in cross-voting

In its first major political victory over the Janata Dal (S) led by its supremo H D Deve Gowda, the breakaway faction of Siddaramaiah has upset the plans of the party to elect a fourth candidate to the Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly segment.

Despite a party whip, the Siddaramaiah faction voted in favour of the Congress' fourth candidate V R Sudarshan resulting in the defeat of the JD (S) candidate former minister K Amarnath Shetty.

The counting for the 11 vacancies in the council was held on Thursday. While the BJP had all four of its candidates elected, the Congress managed to secure a victory over the JD(S) for the fourth seat. The JD(S) had to be content with only three seats.

Those elected are: BJP "" Vimala Gowda (19.2 votes), Tontadarya (19 votes), D S Veeraiah and Janardhan Reddy (20 votes each); Congress "" Motamma, Qazi Arshad Ali and K C Kondaiah (all 20 votes each) and V R Sudarshan (16 votes); JD(S) "" Abdul Azeem, Chikka Madu and H C Neeravari (19 votes each).

The JD(S) fourth candidate Amarnath Shetty was able to bag only 14 votes. He could not muster a lead even after counting of the preferential votes. The party was confident about electing the former minister by issuing a whip to the Siddaramaiah faction, which includes eight legislators.

Even before the whip was issued, the Siddaramaiah faction, which has identified itself as the All India Progressive Janata Dal, had announced its support to the Congress candidate.

Subsequently, the JD(S) had petitioned the Assembly speaker to disqualify the Siddaramaiah faction since it had violated the party code. All the eight members have been suspended from the party.