Ahead of the elections to seven seats in the Legislative Council, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting at a resort near the city on Tuesday evening discussed strategies for elections and the legislators have been asked to be present at the resort on Wednesday again for a mock voting process.

Of the seven, Congress and the BJP are poised to win comfortably four seats and two seats respectively, one seat is witnessing a fight between the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular), raising fears of cross voting.

The Members of the Legislative Assembly are the electors in the election, which is held through a secret ballot. The election is scheduled for Thursday. Among those present at the CLP, included Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, KPCC president B.K. Hariprasad, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Congress general secretary in charge Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Party sources said that though there were plans to brief the legislators on the election process using model ballot papers, allocation of preferential votes and mock voting since more than 30 legislators have been elected for the first time, the party deferred it for Wednesday. “The number of votes to be apportioned between its five candidates and other strategies will be decided on Wednesday,” sources said. While Ramanagara legislator Iqbal Hussain has taken ill and is admitted to hospital, party sources said that he is expected to come to Vidhana Soudha to cast his vote.

Though initially the Congress was expected to keep its flock together by booking rooms in the resort and bring legislators directly to Vidhana Soudha for voting on Thursday, it is now believed that the legislators have been allowed to chose to stay back at the resort or return home after the CLP meeting. “Those who have residences in Bengaluru are likely to go home and those from far away districts are expected to stay back. About 120 legislators took part in the CLP meeting,” said a source.

Number game

Congress has 135 members and is supported by one Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha legislator, two independents and two members who have been expelled from the BJP. With the disqualification of Vinay Kulkarni and death of former Minister D. Sudhakar, the total strength of Assembly is 222. Candidates have to secure at least 28 votes, as per a calculation.

Congress’s candidates, KPCC president B.K. Hariprasad, Tippanna Kamakanoor, P.V. Mohan and B.S. Shivanna, and the BJP’s candidates Lingaraj Patil and Raghu Kautilya are expected to sail through comfortably.

All eyes are on Congress’s Vinay Karthik and JD(S) candidate Govindaraju. If the Congress decides to apportion 29 votes to first four candidates to ensure safety of its candidates, Mr. Karthik will be left with 24 votes and if 28 votes are provided for first four candidates, he will be left with just about the required number, and is also expected to be backed by second preferential votes..

The JD(S) is expecting to get seven votes from its alliance partner BJP, along with one vote of BJP expelled member Basannagouda Patil Yatnal and 18 of its own, taking its tally to 26, still short of two votes. Party sources said that Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy will meeting the party legislators on Wednesday to strategise ahead of the election.

Preparing for city civic polls

Congress legislators have been asked to prepare ground in their respective constituencies for the five corporations in Greater Bengaluru Authority region, and zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat elections. Sources said during the Congress Legislature Party meeting, the legislators were asked to be prepared for the elections since the government has decided to hold the GBA, ZP and TP elections shortly. During the CLP meeting, the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India was also discussed.