Polling for seven seats in the Karnataka Legislative Council began in the Vidhan Soudha in Bengaluru on June 18.

The ruling Congress, which has 37 members in the 75-member Upper House, is expected to achieve a majority with victory assured in four seats.

Of the seven seats, the Congress and the BJP are expected to comfortably win four and two seats, respectively. The Congress is in a battle with the JD(S) for the seventh seat in which Vinay Karthik is pitted against Govindaraju, who is the richest candidate in the fray.

The voting is through secret ballot. Voters are members of the Assembly, the lower house. A candidate requires a minimum of 28 votes to win. In many cases, parties allotting extra votes to each candidate as a precaution in case of a vote is termed invalid, or legislators refrain from voting, or do not turn up for the election.

In the 224-member Lower House, the current strength is 222 after the disqualification of Vinay Kulkarni and the demise of former Minister D. Sudhakar.

The Congress has 135 members and has the support of two Independents, one member of the Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha, and two members expelled by the BJP — S.T. Somashekar and Shivaram Hebbar.

The BJP has 63 members, including G. Janardhan Reddy, while its ally, the JD(S), has 18 members. It is counting on the vote of expelled BJP member Basanagouda R. Patil Yatnal.