Mangaluru  :  Pratap Simha Nayak from Dakshina Kannada including four newly-elected BJP members took oath as members of the Karnataka Legislative Council on Friday.

Pratap Simha Nayak Dakshina Kannada BJP’s District units past president, a prominent leader from the GSB community hailing from Belthangady town in Dakshina Kannada district.

The four-Pratap Simha Nayak, M T B Nagaraj, R Shankar and Sunil Vallyapur- were administered the oath of office by the Chairman of the council K Pratapchandra Shetty.

With this, the BJP’s strength in council is 22 whereas the Congress and JD(S) have a strength of 28 and 14 respectively.

Nagaraj and Shankar were the former Congress MLAs who were among the 17 legislators who were disqualified in 2019. They had joined the BJP later.

Nagaraj had unsuccessfully contested the assembly bypolls. Shankar was not given a ticket to contest the bypolls as Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had assured him a ticket to the council and a ministerial berth later.

Sunil Vallyapur, a former minister and Pratap Simha Nayak are grassroot level party workers.