7 candidates elected 'unopposed' to Karnataka Legislative Council, BJP gains majority in House
Bengaluru, May 27: All the seven candidates in the fray for the biennial election to Karnataka Legislative Council, slated to be elected by the Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs), were on Friday declared as elected "unopposed".
The declaration paved the way for the BJP to gain a majority in the Upper House as four out of the seven new members are from the ruling party, two from Congress and JD(S) one.
The polls for seven seats were scheduled to be held on June 3, but on Friday, the last day to withdraw nominations, only seven candidates were in the fray and all of them were declared elected "unopposed", the Returning Officer for MLC polls and Secretary, Karnataka Legislative Assembly, M K Vishalakshi said.
The seven candidates declared elected include BJP's vice-president and former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi, party's state secretaries Hemalatha Nayak and S Keshavaprasad, and President of SC Morcha Chalavadi Narayanaswamy.
Congress' M Nagaraju Yadav, former chairman of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and K Abdul Jabbar, the President of KPCC's minority cell and a former MLC; and JD(S)' T A Saravana, a former MLC, were elected in the other three seats.
The election was necessitated as the term of office of seven members expires on June 14.
The seats will be falling vacant due to the retirement of MLCs -- Laxman Savadi and Lahar Singh Siroya of BJP; Ramappa Timmapur, Allum Veerabhadrappa, Veena Achaiah S of Congress; and H M Ramesha Gowda and Narayana Swamy K V of JD(S).
According to official sources, in case election was to be held, each MLC candidate would require a minimum of 29 votes to win. Based on the strength of each party in the Legislative Assembly, the BJP can win four seats, Congress two, and JD(S) one.
With the election of four BJP candidates, the ruling party will now have a majority in the Legislative Council until June 15, as numbers may alter thereafter, because results will be declared that day for June 13 polls to four MLC seats -- two teachers' and two graduates' constituencies.
Before the election outcome for seven seats was declared, the BJP had 37 members in the 75-member upper house, where it is just one short of a simple majority.
While the Congress had a strength of 26 members, the JD(S) had 10 members. There is also one independent member other than the Chairman.
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Trump says he is planning to attend Jimmy Carter's funeral
Palm Beach (AP/PTI): President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's planning to attend the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter.
Asked about it as he walked into a New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump responded, "I'll be there.” Pressed on whether he'd spoken to members of Carter's family, Trump said he'd rather not say.
Funeral services honouring Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, will be held in Georgia and Washington, beginning January 4 and concluding January 9.
Trump was a frequent and fierce critic of Carter on the campaign trail ahead of November's election, using the rising inflation rates of the 1970s to unfavourably compare President Joe Biden to Carter and his administration.
But the president-elect was gracious about the former president in posts on his social media site after Carter's death Sunday, writing that the nation “owed him a debt of gratitude.”
“While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realised that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for,” Trump wrote of Carter. “He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect.”
Wearing a tuxedo as he entered the festivities, Trump took a few minutes of questions from reporters on various topics. He was asked about the possibility of a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza, but said only, “We're going to see what happens."
The president-elect added of hostages seized more than a year ago by Hamas, “I'll put it this way: They better let the hostages come back soon."
Trump also said he thought 2025 would be a “great year” and "we're going to do fantastically well as a country.”
“There's a whole light over the whole world, not just our country. They're a lot of happy people,” Trump said of recent weeks.
Asked about his resolutions for the new year, Trump said, “I just want everybody to be happy, healthy and well.”
Trump later took the stage to briefly address the crowd ringing in the new year at Mar-a-Lago and promised “to do a great job as your president.”
Biden, for his part, spent New Year's Eve celebrating the wedding of his niece Missy Owens in Greenville, Delaware, followed by the reception in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Biden and first lady Jill Biden cut short their traditional holiday trip to the US Virgin Islands to attend the ceremony.
