ELECTIONS

Lok Satta party announced two of its candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in a press conference on October 4th. Shanthala Damle and Dr Meenakshi Bharath are the two candidates, who will contest from Basavanagudi and Malleswaram constituencies respectively. The party also invited members from the general public who are interested in contesting elections under Lok Satta ticket.Dr Meenakshi has contested as Lok Satta candidate in the 2010 BBMP ward elections. She is currently the Bangalore district President of the party. A practising gynaecologist, she is also active in the civic initiatives Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT) and Citizens…

In this year’s graduate constituency MLC election for Karnataka, the three mainstream parties BJP, Congress and JD(S) won the first, second and third places respectively. The surprise result was that of Andhra Pradesh-based Lok Satta party, which came fourth.Legislative council elections use the preferential voting system, by which voters can rank candidates in their order of preference. Initially first-preference votes for each candidate - wherein they were ranked ‘1’ - are counted. Then candidates with the least first preference votes are removed one by one, and the second preference votes marked by their voters are transferred to the respective candidates.…

Four-term veteran Ramachandra Gowda, 74, won the graduates constituency MLC seat for Bangalore by a whisker. At the end of the first preference votes count, he was trailing the JD(S) candidate Deve Gowda. He then managed to edge past him when second preference votes we transferred from other candidates. Ramachandra Gowda (BJP). Pic: Ramachandra Gowda Ramachandra Gowda, the  incumbent, secured 8468 votes to Deve Gowda’s 8224, and Congress’ Ramoji Gowda, 39, was placed third with 5541 votes. Reformist Lok Satta party candidate Ashwin Mahesh, 42, came fourth. However his showing of 4000-plus first preference votes  has been widely seen in…

Names missing from the voters' list, confusion over booths allocated - it was deja vu for voters at the Graduate Constituency MLC election on Sunday. Although only 28% i.e. 30,800 off the 1,10,000 people registered showed up, voting was not smooth for many of them. In the previous MLC election, 20,000 voted out of the 70,000 graduates registered. MLA N A Haris with a voter trying to sort out the latter’s grievance. Pic: Sankar C G In many places, people faced difficulty in finding out their respective booths, as the website which carries the details of the voters list and…

June 2012 Of voter’s list, voting booths and preferential voting:  a guide to voting booths and how to find your name in the electoral rolls for the election on June 10th. Also a note on how the preferential system works. Sixteen candidates will battle it out in the Bangalore graduate constituency MLC election on June 10th. Campaigning in graduates MLC race intensifies, contrasts break through. Follow the progress of the Election campaignWho is running for office? Read the in-depth backgrounder on Ramachandra Gowda, Ramoji Gowda, A Deve Gowda, Ashwin Mahesh, Nagalaxmi Bai and K S Lakshmi. All about the MLC…

There are a three weeks to go for the Bangalore’s graduate constituency election - the one in which only graduates can vote. The candidate elected from this constituency will become a member in Legislative Council (MLC), the upper house of Karnataka's state legislature. With election scheduled for June 10th, candidates are campaigning intensely. In addition to the three mainstream political parties that usually participate in this election - BJP, Congress and JD(S) - the Andhra Pradesh-headquartered Lok Satta party has entered the fray this time. There are also independent candidates. An overview of the major candidates -Ramachandra Gowda, Ramoji Gowda,…

For the past one month, former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde has been campaigning for Ashwin Mahesh, Lok Satta party’s candidate for the graduate constituency MLC election. This is the first time Hegde is endorsing a candidate in any election. He also goes door-to-door appealing residents to vote for Mahesh. Justice Santhosh Hegde. File pic: Citizen Matters In this interview with Citizen Matters, Hegde talks about his decision to start engaging with elections.Why are you endorsing a candidate in this election?I was against anyone in Team Anna campaigning in elections, as it would almost be like taking sides. There are lot…

As some of you know, ABIDe member and urban affairs strategist Ashwin Mahesh is running for a seat in the Karnataka Legislative Council under the graduates constituency this month. He is campaigning on a Lok Satta party ticket.We must also let you know that Mahesh is one of the directors of Oorvani Media, the firm that publishes Citizen Matters (this print and online magazine covering Bangalore) and India Together, the national e-magazine covering public affairs and development. All over the world, it is true that politicians starting media outfits, and media, have tended to play a dubious role in politics.…

Sixteen candidates will battle it out in the Bangalore graduate constituency MLC election on June 10th. The candidates include those from five political parties - BJP, Congress, JD(S), Lok Satta and CPI(M) - and 11 independents. Unlike the last election in 2006, more voters also have been enrolled this time. While there were around 60,000 graduate voters last time, it has gone over 1.1 lakh this time, with over 51,000 new enrollments. In graduate constituency election, the votes a candidate gets depends on the number of voters he has gotten enrolled. And even less voters actually come to vote on…

Even as contestants were making efforts to push through last minute voter registrations for the graduates constituency election, there was confusion last week. One, the last date for registrations was not categorically clear. There was reports that citizens could register during the week of May 14th, and contradicting reports that Sunday May 13th was the last day. Second, BBMP officials were declining to register voters.  "We opened on holidays Saturday and Sunday, May 12 and 13th, for enrollment. We closed registration on 13th, as per the clarification we got from Election Commission of India", says Shambhu Dayal Meena, Regional Commissioner…