Congress candidate, brother of Congress MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar, Channaraj Hattiholli is leading than his BJP counterpart, MLC Mahantesh Kavatagimath in the ongoing counting of votes to Legislative Council from local bodies.

Kavatagimath the two-time MLC who is also the Chief Whip of the government is contesting for the third time is even trailing to independent candidate Lakhan Jarkiholi.

If observed the current trend, Hattiholli would win itself in the first preference and Lakhan Jarkiholi in the second preferential votes. The district has to elect two seats. Congress has about 4000 votes of which around 3000 votes required to win with the first preference votes. His Additional would be equally distributed to the rest of the candidates.

The district recorded 99.97pc votes of around 8000 votes.