BENGALURU, June 19 -- Cross voting by at least 11 legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular) helped the Congress capture an unexpected fifth seat in Karnataka's legislative council elections on Thursday, giving the ruling party a majority in the 75-member Upper House and marking a success in chief minister DK Shivakumar's first political test. The Congress won five of the seven seats on offer, and the BJP secured the remaining two. JD(S) candidate Govindraju, whose party had relied on the BJP support for the final seat, was defeated. Based on the available figures, at least six BJP lawmakers and between four and eight JD(S) lawmakers appear to have voted against their parties, although the precise distribution may become clearer once the parties complete their internal assessment of the ballots. One BJP legislator's ballot was declared invalid. The Congress, which had 134 members in the 224-member House, had the strength to elect four candidates on its own but required support of at least six more lawmakers to secure the fifth seat. The Congress also received backing from independent lawmakers Latha Mallikarjun, KH Puttaswamy Gowda and Darshan Puttannaiah. Expelled BJP legislators ST Somashekhar and Shivaram Hebbar also supported Congress candidates. Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said the result reflected support among legislators for the party's administration. "In the first round of the Legislative Council elections, all five Congress candidates won with a landslide victory. Congress had 135 votes, but it won 151," he said. Congress candidates BK Hariprasad, PV Mohan, BS Shivanna, Tippannappa Kamakanoor and Vinay Karthik Prakash were elected. According to the party, Hariprasad secured 30 votes, Mohan 29, Shivanna 30, Kamakanoor 30 and Vinay Karthik 32, giving the party a combined total of 151 votes, indicating it received another 11 votes from legislators outside its own ranks, largely through cross voting by BJP and JD(S) MLAs. The BJP's Raghu Kautilya won with 29 votes. Lingaraj Patil secured 27 votes and entered the council after the elimination round, despite falling short of the winning quota of 27.63 votes. One vote cast for Raghu Kautilya was invalid. Govindraju received 14 votes. The outcome increased the Congress's strength in the legislative council from 34 to 39 members, giving it control of the 75-member House for the first time. The BJP now has 29 members, the JD(S) six and there is one independent member....