New K'taka Council members take oath

Bangalore, June 19: Eleven newly elected Karnataka Legislative Council members took oath of office and secrecy in the House, today.

Acting Council Chairman Sadanand Khot administered the oath to the new members.

Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Basavaraj S Horatti and Leader of the Opposition in the Council H K Patil welcomed the new members.

The new members, four each from the Congress and BJP and three from JD (S), were elected earlier this month in the biennial polls.

They were Mr V R Sudarshan, Mr K C Kondaiah, Ms Motamma and Mr Khazi Arshad Ali (all Congress,) Ms Vimala Gowda, Mr D S Veeraiah, Mr Thontadarya and Mr Janardhana Reddy (all BJP) and Mr Abdul Azeem, H Chikkamadu and H C Neeravari (all JD-S).

Of them, Mr Sudarshan, Mr Kondaiah, Mr Arshad Ali and Ms Vimala Gowda were re-elected to the House.

The BJP also retained the North-East Graduates seat for the fourth successive term, with its candidate Manohar Maski securing more than 50 per cent of the votes polled at the end of the third round of counting.

While Mr Maski secured 18,282 votes, his nearest Congress rival Suryakanth Koralli polled 8,525 votes and Sangameshwar of JD (S) 5,378 votes.

The North-East Graduates' constituency covered Gulbarga, Bidar, Bellary, Raichur and Koppal districts and Harapanahalli taluk in Davangere district.

UNI