On October 28, elections will be held for the position of MLC (Member of Legislative Council) from Bangalore Teachers’ Constituency. This constituency consists of Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural and Ramanagara districts. Find the parts coming under the constituency here.
What is a teachers’ constituency?
Not all residents can vote in a teachers’ constituency election. Only a full-time teacher in at least a secondary school or higher, is eligible to vote. Also, the person should have been holding this position for the previous three years. In Bengaluru Urban district, all teachers who meet this criteria can vote in the Bangalore Teachers’ Constituency election.
Constituencies specifically reserved for teachers or graduates was aimed at curbing criminalisation of politics, and ensuring the entry of educated and intellectual candidates. The idea was to pave the way for politics that would be governed by development and knowledge rather than money and religion.
Teachers’ constituency elections are held only in seven Indian states that have a legislative council. The term of the MLC elected, is six years.
Know your candidate
The list of candidates for the Bangalore Teachers’ Constituency is available on the official website of Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer. The last date for filing nominations was October 8.
Following are the major contestants:
Puttanna, BJP
| CANDIDATE’S NAME | Puttanna |
| PARTY AFFILIATION | Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) |
| EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION | MA History |
| PROFESSION | Social Service, Agriculturist |
| FAMILY | Spouse, three dependents |
| CRIMINAL CASES | No pending cases |
| NET WORTH | Total assets – Rs 48.69 crore (Movable assets- Rs. 21.42 cr; Immovable assets- Rs 27.27 cr). Liabilities- 10.88 crore |
| SOCIAL MEDIA | Twitter, Facebook |
Praveen Kumar R, Congress
| CANDIDATE’S NAME | Praveen Kumar R |
| PARTY AFFILIATION | Indian National Congress |
| EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION | PUC graduate |
| PROFESSION | Social Service, Consulting |
| FAMILY | Spouse, two dependents |
| CRIMINAL CASES | No pending cases |
| NET WORTH | Total assets (Movable assets) – Rs 40.03 lakhImmovable assets- NILLiabilities- NIL |
| SOCIAL MEDIA | Twitter, Instagram |
A P Ranganathan, JD(S)
| CANDIDATE’S NAME | A P Ranganathan |
| PARTY AFFILIATION | Janata Dal (Secular) |
| EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS | BA, LLB |
| PROFESSION | Lawyer |
| FAMILY | Spouse, two dependents |
| CRIMINAL CASES | Two pending cases (Assault, conducting meeting without obtaining permission) |
| NET WORTH | Total assets – Rs 74.42 lakh (Movable assets – Rs 63.72 lakh; Immovable assets- Rs 10.7 lakh) Liabilities – Rs 23.79 lakh |
| SOCIAL MEDIA |
BJP’s Puttanna is in the incumbent MLC from the constituency. In the previous MLC election, he had won as the JD(S) candidate, but jumped ship to BJP this March. Puttanna is a three-time MLC.
According to a report in the Deccan Herald, Puttanna has the highest net worth among candidates across all constituencies in this MLC elections, with assets totaling to Rs 48.69 crore. Puttanna, a postgraduate in history, was also the former deputy chairman of the legislative council.
Praveen Peter, or Praveen Kumar as mentioned in his nomination papers, is relatively a newcomer to politics. The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee had announced his candidacy early this year. He has been a party member since 2010, and is currently serving as a spokesperson of Indian Youth Congress.
A P Ranganth, President of Advocates Association of Bengaluru and former Syndicate member of Bengaluru University, was formally announced as the JD(S) candidate earlier this month. However, his candidacy was known from last year, and Puttanna had announced his intention of exiting JD(S) last October for this reason.
In addition to the three candidates from major political parties, seven independents are also contesting the election. Find the links to their affidavits here.
| NAME OF THE CANDIDATE | EDUCATION |
| Chandral S | BA Graduate |
| Puttanna L | Law graduate |
| Ranganatha B K | SSLC Fail |
| Ranganath T | SSLC |
| Ravishankar M N | Diploma in Computer Science |
| Varadaraju B H | BSc, B Ed |
| Ranganath S V | MA |
2014 election
The elections for Bengaluru Teachers’ constituency was last held on June 20, 2014. According to an article in the Deccan Herald, 34,040 teachers had registered as voters that election.
JD(S) emerged victorious, with their candidate Puttanna winning 8,531 votes. BJP’s B K Neelaiah came second with 5531 votes. While independent candidate Dr Gururaj Karajagi came third with 1456 votes, Congress’s B K Venkatesh trailed far behind with just 114 votes.
Many of the voters names are unfound in the list of voters. Please kindly sort out the issue before the election.
Regards
Kalidas K
I have applied for enrollment for Bengaluruteachers constituency voter list, so how to whether or not included in the voter list.
Hello,
Where / How will the polling be conducted? What proof of employment should the faculty produce to cast his / her vote? Is this open for the faculty of private engineering and architecture colleges?
I, we want know about about mlc election and details pls.