Voting under way for 7 Council seats

BENGALURU: Voting for seven seats of the Legislative Council began at 9 am on Thursday at Vidhana Soudha and will continue till 4 pm. The results will be announced on Thursday evening after voting concludes.

Two polling booths have been set up inside the state secretariat to facilitate secret voting by MLAs. CCTV cameras have been installed both inside and outside the polling room, and all arrangements for voting have been completed. Necessary police security has been deployed at Vidhana Soudha.

Ahead of polling, Congress MLAs arrived at Vidhana Soudha in groups. Buses were arranged to bring legislators from a resort to the venue for the election.

#WATCH | Karnataka: Buses arrive to pick MLAs from resort to Vidhana Soudha for them to vote in elections for 7 seats of the Legislative Council. All Congress MLAs to travel in groups to Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/zGVcOfHc5d

— ANI (@ANI) June 18, 2026

On the MLC polls, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R Ashoka expressed confidence that the BJP’s two candidates will win.

Ashoka said, “Our two candidates will win, there is no doubt at all. We have good MLAs in our party; there is no cross-voting. We have to transfer the excess votes to the JDS… I called a meeting today and gave the whip.”

#WATCH | Bengaluru, Karnataka: Elections for 7 seats of the Legislative Council to be held today. Voting will take place from 9 AM to 4 PM in Vidhana Soudha.

Two polling booths have been set up to facilitate secret voting by MLAs. CCTV cameras have been installed both inside and… pic.twitter.com/RVTnVAnpXU

— ANI (@ANI) June 18, 2026

Of the seven seats falling vacant, four are held by the Congress, two by the BJP and one by the JD(S). Eight candidates are in the fray for seven seats, with each candidate needing 28 votes to secure a win.

The Congress has fielded four candidates — B K Hariprasad, Tippannappa Kamaknoor, P V Mohan and Shivanna Malavalli. The BJP has nominated Raghu Kautilya and Lingaraj Patil. The main contest for the seventh seat is expected to be between Congress candidate Vinay Karthik and JD(S) candidate Govindaraju.

The election is being seen as an important test for Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, as it is the first major poll under his leadership. (ANI)