Bangalore: The MLC elections held on June 11, Monday turned out to be very embarrassing and a major setback for the Congress after its official candidate Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi lost. While the BJP too was no better when the JD(S) backed independent candidate Byarathi Suresh won, thus making it clear that the BJP, Congress as well as the JD(S) had resorted to cross voting in abundance.

On the other hand, all the six candidates officially announced by the BJP won bringing in some satisfaction for the BJP.

The winners include BJ Puttaswamy, S Veeraiah, Somanna Bevinamarada, all from the BJP, MR Seetaram from Congress, Syed Muneer Aga from JD(S) and Suresh got elected in the first preference voting while in the next round those elected were Vimala Gowda, Raghupathi Rao, MB Bhanuprakash of the BJP, Motamma and K Govindaraju of the Congress.

In the 225 member Lower House, the BJP has 125 members, Congress 71 members.