Voting is currently underway for the biennial elections to six seats in the Karnataka Legislative Council, specifically from the teachers' and graduates' constituencies.
Seventy-eight contestants are vying for these seats, and the counting of votes is scheduled for June 6.
In the 75-member Upper House, the Congress currently holds 29 seats.
The elections are being conducted for the following constituencies: Karnataka North East Graduates, Karnataka South West Graduates, Bangalore Graduates, Karnataka South-East Teachers, Karnataka South-West Teachers, and Karnataka South Teachers. These seats became vacant due to the retirement of six members.
The graduates' constituencies have approximately 3.63 lakh voters, while the teachers' constituencies have around 70,260 voters.
For the smooth conduct of elections, the Election Commission has established 170 polling stations for the teachers' constituencies and 461 polling stations for the graduates' constituencies.
In the electoral arena, the Congress has put forward candidates such as Marithibba Gowda for the South Teachers constituency, K K Manjunath for the South-West Teachers, Ayanur Manjunath for the South-West Graduates, Chandrashekhar Patil for the North-East Graduates, Ramoji Gowda for the Bangalore Graduates, and D T Srinivas for the South-East Teachers.
On the other hand, the BJP and its ally JD(S) have joined forces for these MLC elections. The BJP is contesting in four constituencies, and the JD(S) in two.
The BJP has nominated Amarnath Patil for the Karnataka North-East Graduates constituency, Dr. Dhananjay Sarji for the Karnataka South-West Graduates constituency, A Devegowda for the Bangalore Graduates' constituency, and Y A Narayanaswamy for the South-East Teachers constituency.
Meanwhile, the JD(S) candidates include K Vivekananda for the South Teachers constituency and Bhoje Gowda for the South-West Teachers constituency.