Sankanur wins West Graduates’ seat for third consecutive term

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate S.V. Sankanur won the West Graduates’ constituency seat in the Karnataka Legislative Council election, defeating Congress candidate Mohan Limbikai by 9,323 first-preference votes and retaining the seat for a third consecutive term. Sankanur received 33,711 votes to Limbikai’s 24,388, according to the result declared by Returning Officer K.M. Janaki. Independent candidate Kantakumar R. finished third with 4,055 votes. Fourteen candidates contested the seat. Counting began at 8 a.m. on October 27 at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad and concluded at 2 a.m. on October 28. Sankanur held the lead through the counting rounds. Janaki said 73,691 votes were polled, of which 63,446 were valid and 10,245 were rejected. The rejected-vote total was higher than Sankanur’s winning margin. That comparison does not establish that the rejected ballots would have changed the result. A report during counting said the volume of ballots and scrutiny required under preferential voting contributed to the delay; it also reported that some ballots marked with ticks or crosses raised questions about validity. The election was held on October 23. The...