The speculation over cross voting in election to seven Legislative Council seats in Karnataka came true on Thursday, with Congress winning all five seats that it had contested, even as it garnered 11 votes through cross voting from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners - the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular).

The result is also seen as a shot in the arm for Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who faced his first election after taking over from his predecessor Siddaramaiah.

While the BJP, which was left red-faced, has lost at least three votes in cross voting, the JD(S) that suffered an embarrassing defeat has lost at least four. The confusion over where the four extra cross votes came to the Congress remains a bone of contention.

The results immediately triggered tensions among the NDA partners as the BJP insisted that four of its candidates had indeed voted in favour of the JD(S) candidate Govindraju. The regional party refuted the claim and said that the BJP members did not vote in its favour. Mr. Govindraju got 14 votes as against the regional party’s strength of 18 in the Legislative Assembly.

Eventually, the Congress candidates – KPCC president B.K. Hariprasad, B.S. Shivanna, P.V. Mohan, Thippannappa Kamaknoor and Vinay Karthik -— won the elections, along with the BJP candidates Lingaraj Patil and R. Raghu. Except Mr. Patil, all others were declared winner after the first round of counting. One vote polled in favour of Mr. Raghu was declared invalid.

The BJP’s embarrassment was more intense as their candidate Mr. Patil, who had been allocated 30 votes, received 27, and was declared winner in the elimination round. Based on the votes received by Mr. Patil, the BJP claimed that only three of its legislators cross voted. The cross voting, however, has exposed chinks in the faction-ridden BJP’s State unit. Coming two years ahead of the Assembly polls, this will likely lead to the party high command taking more control of the State unit, sources said.

The Congress’s fifth candidate Mr. Karthik, who did not have the required number before the polls, finally received 32 votes — the highest among all candidates in the fray. He is the grandson of former Congress leader the late Sahukar Chennaiah.

The Congress that has claimed strength of 140 seats in the 224-member Assembly, managed to receive 151 votes together across five candidates.

Congress general secretary in charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala told presspersons that the party receiving 11 more votes than expected was “historic.”

Mr. Shivakumar expressed “surprise” at these additional votes. “The number of legislators from other parties have reposed trust in us. Hope they will continue to have trust in our programmes.”

When asked about cross voting, he said, “I do not know who has voted in our favour. I have not spoken to anyone.”

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok acknowledged that three of their legislators had cross-voted. “We will know who it is and the party will decide (on action). There was one invalid vote too,” he said.