Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)
Bangalore, Dec 23: In the legislative council bypoll held on Thursday December 22, Chief Minister (CM), D V Sadananda Gowda, has come out victorious. In spite of holding demonstration about how to cast votes, six votes were declared invalid in this election. Now, both Congress and BJP leaders, who know that every vote is priceless and would have turned the tables, had JDS and independent candidates played their cards in an unexpected manner at the last minute, have now begun an exercise to find out the villains.
It is said that all the six invalid voters had put a tick mark against CM, D V Sadananda Gowda’s name, instead of writing 1 against it. This mistake should not have occurred, as practical training was provided to the legislators, who are expected to know the election rules much better than the ordinary citizens. In view of the fact that a BJP vote had been rejected for putting tick mark against the name of the candidate in the Rajya Sabha poll, proper training was given to MLAs. Although some presume that three disgruntled BJP legislators, and three from the Congress, had purposefully ensured that their votes went waste, there is no proper basis for this assumption. The parties have begun a process to find out whether this happened accidentally or with purpose.
Out of the 225 total membership of the state assembly including nominated member, Derick Fulin Fa, BJP has strength of 119. Including the nominated member and speaker, its strength is 121. If the votes of Varthur Prakash and five other independents, who had promised to support BJP, are taken into account, the CM should have secured 127 votes. After deducting the vote of Kalakappa Bandi, whose vote was declared invalid for exhibiting it before putting into the box, Gowda should have mustered 126 votes. But the votes the CM got fell short by a margin of three.
Congress has membership strength of 71. Sriramulu, speaking after the poll, indirectly hinted that he had voted for the Congress. Therefore, Gaddadevaramath should have secured 72 votes. But he got only 69, three less than what was expected.
More than the invalidity, the issue which has been bothering the party leaders is the purpose which made these leaders to allow their votes go waste.