The Congress's victory in the just concluded polls to the Legislative Council is a major shot in the arm for not just the party, but also Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself.
By noon, the Congress had won four seats while the BJP had won one of the 25 seats to local body representatives in the Legislative Council which went to polls on Sunday. Five of these seats are Vijayapura, Dharwad, Mysuru-Chamarajnagar, Dakshina Kannada, Belagavi. The terms of these candidates were to complete in January.
At 1 pm, the Congress was leading in 14 seats, BJP in 5, JDS in 1 and others in 1.
Congress
| Winner | Constituency |
| M Narayanswamy | Bangalore City |
| S Ravi | Bangalore Rural |
| Vijay Singh | Bidar |
| SL Ghotnekar | Uttara Kannada |
| Pratap Chandra Shetty | Udupi Dakshina Kannada |
| KC Kondaiah | Ballari |
| Basavaraj Patil Itagi | Raichur |
| Shirinivas Mane | Dharwad (dual) |
| Raghu Achar | Chitradurga |
| Gopal Swamy | Hassan |
| Dharmasena | Mysuru-Chamarajnagar (dual) |
| R Prasannakumar | Shivamogga |
| SR Patil | Vijayapura-Bagalkot (dual) |
| TOTAL | 13 |
BJP
| Winner | Constituency |
| Sunil Subrahmanya | Kodagu |
| Kota Srinivas Poojary | Udupi-Dakshina Kannada |
| MK Pranesh | Chikmgalur |
| Pradeep Shettar | Dharwad (dual) |
| Mahantesh Kavatagi | Belagavi (dual) |
| BG Patil | Kalaburgi |
| TOTAL | 6 |
JDS
| Winner | Constituency |
| Sandesh Nagaraj | Mysuru-Chamarajnagar |
| Appaji Gowda | Mandya |
| SR Manohar | Kolar |
| Kantharaj | Tumakuru |
| TOTAL | 4 |
Independent
| Winner | Constituency |
| Vivekrao Patil | Belagavi (dual) |
| TOTAL | 2 |
(These are provisional results. Official confirmation from the ECI is awaited.)
Counting in some seats such as Tumakuru began very late as there were delays in several counting booths.
The council elections are important for the Congress party especially for Siddaramaiah as the party is beholden to the Opposition in Upper House as its strength is poor. Currently, the Congress has 28 seats in the Council while the BJP has 30 and the JDS 12.
With 25 seats in the 75-member house going to polls, the Congress hopes to win around 15 seats, which would improve its tally in the Upper House.
(This is a developing story and will be updated)