Bangalore Teachers’ Constituency election: Info on MLC, candidates and more

Bangalore Teachers' Constituency election, on October 28, will see incumbent MLC Puttanna contesting JD(S)'s A P Ranganathan and Congress's Praveen Kumar.

On October 28, elections will be held for the position of MLC (Member of Legislative Council) from Bangalore Teachers’ Constituency. This constituency consists of Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural and Ramanagara districts. Find the parts coming under the constituency here

What is a teachers’ constituency?

Not all residents can vote in a teachers’ constituency election. Only a full-time teacher in at least a secondary school or higher, is eligible to vote. Also, the person should have been holding this position for the previous three years. In Bengaluru Urban district, all teachers who meet this criteria can vote in the Bangalore Teachers’ Constituency election.

Constituencies specifically reserved for teachers or graduates was aimed at curbing criminalisation of politics, and ensuring the entry of educated and intellectual candidates. The idea was to pave the way for politics that would be governed by development and knowledge rather than money and religion.

Teachers’ constituency elections are held only in seven Indian states that have a legislative council. The term of the MLC elected, is six years.

Know your candidate

The list of candidates for the Bangalore Teachers’ Constituency is available on the official website of Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer.  The last date for filing nominations was October 8.

Following are the major contestants:

Puttanna, BJP

Puttanna is the incumbent MLC of the constituency. He was elected from the JD(S) last time, but is contesting as a BJP candidate now. Pic: Twitter/Puttannakar
CANDIDATE’S NAMEPuttanna
PARTY AFFILIATIONBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONMA History
PROFESSIONSocial Service, Agriculturist
FAMILYSpouse, three dependents
CRIMINAL CASESNo pending cases
NET WORTHTotal assets – Rs 48.69 crore (Movable assets- Rs. 21.42 cr; Immovable assets- Rs 27.27 cr).
Liabilities- 10.88 crore
SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter, Facebook

Praveen Kumar R, Congress

Congress candidate Praveen Kumar (centre) filing his nomination. Pic: Twitter/thepraveenpeter
CANDIDATE’S NAMEPraveen Kumar R
PARTY AFFILIATIONIndian National Congress 
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONPUC graduate 
PROFESSIONSocial Service, Consulting 
FAMILYSpouse, two dependents 
CRIMINAL CASESNo pending cases 
NET WORTHTotal assets (Movable assets) – Rs 40.03 lakhImmovable assets- NILLiabilities- NIL
SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter, Instagram 

A P Ranganathan, JD(S)

JD(S) candidate A P Ranganathan interacting with teachers during his campaign. Pic: Facebook/RanganthaAP
CANDIDATE’S NAMEA P Ranganathan
PARTY AFFILIATIONJanata Dal (Secular)
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONSBA, LLB
PROFESSIONLawyer 
FAMILYSpouse, two dependents
CRIMINAL CASESTwo pending cases (Assault, conducting meeting without obtaining permission)
NET WORTHTotal assets – Rs 74.42 lakh (Movable assets – Rs 63.72 lakh; Immovable assets- Rs 10.7 lakh)
Liabilities – Rs 23.79 lakh
SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook

BJP’s Puttanna is in the incumbent MLC from the constituency. In the previous MLC election, he had won as the JD(S) candidate, but jumped ship to BJP this March. Puttanna is a three-time MLC.

According to a report in the Deccan Herald, Puttanna has the highest net worth among candidates across all constituencies in this MLC elections, with assets totaling to Rs 48.69 crore. Puttanna, a postgraduate in history, was also the former deputy chairman of the legislative council.

Praveen Peter, or Praveen Kumar as mentioned in his nomination papers, is relatively a newcomer to politics. The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee had announced his candidacy early this year. He has been a party member since 2010, and is currently serving as a spokesperson of Indian Youth Congress. 

A P Ranganth, President of Advocates Association of Bengaluru and former Syndicate member of Bengaluru University, was formally announced as the JD(S) candidate earlier this month. However, his candidacy was known from last year, and Puttanna had announced his intention of exiting JD(S) last October for this reason.

In addition to the three candidates from major political parties, seven independents are also contesting the election. Find the links to their affidavits here.

NAME OF THE CANDIDATEEDUCATION 
Chandral SBA Graduate
Puttanna LLaw graduate 
Ranganatha B KSSLC Fail
Ranganath TSSLC
Ravishankar M N Diploma in Computer Science
Varadaraju B HBSc, B Ed
Ranganath S VMA

2014 election

The elections for Bengaluru Teachers’ constituency was last held on June 20, 2014. According to an article in the Deccan Herald, 34,040 teachers had registered as voters that election.

Courtesy: CEO, Karnataka 

JD(S) emerged victorious, with their candidate Puttanna winning 8,531 votes. BJP’s B K Neelaiah came second with 5531 votes. While independent candidate Dr Gururaj Karajagi came third with 1456 votes, Congress’s B K Venkatesh trailed far behind with just 114 votes.

Comments:

  1. Kalidas K says:

    Many of the voters names are unfound in the list of voters. Please kindly sort out the issue before the election.
    Regards
    Kalidas K

  2. A Sahadev says:

    I have applied for enrollment for Bengaluruteachers constituency voter list, so how to whether or not included in the voter list.

  3. Sharad Narayan says:

    Hello,

    Where / How will the polling be conducted? What proof of employment should the faculty produce to cast his / her vote? Is this open for the faculty of private engineering and architecture colleges?

  4. Basavaraj says:

    I, we want know about about mlc election and details pls.

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