Amidst fears of cross-voting, elections to the four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka got under way in Bengaluru on February 27. By noon, more than 112 legislators, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, had cast their votes. The result of the election will be announced by evening.
Five candidates Narayanasa K. Bhandage (BJP), G.C. Chandrashekar, Ajay Maken and Syed Naseer Hussein (Congress), and Kupendra Reddy (Janata Dal-Secular) are in the fray for the four seats.
The elections are taking place as four members – Syed Naseer Hussein, G.C. Chandrashekar and L. Hanumanthaiah (Congress), and Rajeev Chandrashekar (BJP) are retiring in April after completion of their term.
Also read | Rajya Sabha Election 2024 live updates
In the current strength of 223 members (after the death of Surpur MLA Raja Venkatappa Naik) in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, Congress has 134 members, while BJP has 66 and JD(S) has 19 members. Latha Mallikarjun (Harappanahalli) and K.H. Puttaswamy Gowda (Gauribidanur) are independents along with Darshan Puttannaiah (Melukote) of Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha, and G. Janardhan Reddy (Gangawati) of Karnataka Rajya Pragathi Paksha.
While 45 votes are required for a candidate to register a victory, the Congress and the BJP are comfortably placed to win three seats and one seat, respectively.
Meanwhile, despite a whip for BJP legislators to vote for party candidate, its member representing Yeshwantpur Assembly constituency S.T. Somashekar is speculated to have cross-voted in favour of the Congress candidate after speaking about ‘conscience vote’.
He was among those legislators whose moves were keenly watched. Before casting his votes, he had said that so far no candidate had approached him for votes, and that he would vote for the candidate who would fund development works in Yeshwantpur Assembly constituency.
Other members who are drawing attention are former Minister and BJP member from Yellapura Shivaram Hebbar and Janata Dal (Secular) member from Gurmitkal Sharanagouda Kandakur.
Mr. Kandakur told mediapersons that though it is true that there were misunderstanding, he had voted for the JD(S) candidate after an olive branch was extended by party leaders, including former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Mr. Siddaramaiah had accused the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) of offering inducements and threats to Congress legislators to vote for their candidate. He said that the Congress with 134 members and the support of four more legislators, including 2 independents, did not need to engineering cross-voting. “The JD(S) with 19 members need not have fielded its candidate. There were inducements and threats to our legislators. Hence, we decided that all the legislators would stay together,” he said, justifying the party’s decision to herd its legislators into a hotel in Bengaluru.
Party sources claimed that attempts had been made to reach out to at least 40 Congress legislators by the BJP-JD(S) seeking votes in favour of Kupendra Reddy. “There were extensive discussions at the Congress Legislative Party meeting on the threats and inducements being made to Congress legislators,” Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said, but did not elaborate.
