Bengaluru
With the lack of unity in the Opposition ranks working in its favour, and the cross voting from the Janata Dal (S) members, the ruling BJP romped home with three of the four Rajya Sabha seats from the State. The other seat went to the Congress. The regional party, which bargained hard to get the fourth seat with the Congress help, drew a blank.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Kannada film actor Jaggesh, and former MLC Lahar Singh Siroya of the BJP, and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh of the Congress were declared elected after counting of votes on Friday night. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called and congratulated Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on the party’s victory.
Ms. Sitharaman and Mr. Ramesh secured 46 votes each and Mr. Jaggesh 44 votes. In the keenly contested fourth seat, Mr. Siroya who secured 33 votes was declared winner as Janata Dal (S) candidate D. Kupendra Reddy and Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan secured 30 and 23 votes, respectively.
BJP general secretary C.T. Ravi claimed that Mr. Siroya had received two second preference votes from the Congress.
Defying the party whip, JD (S) legislator from Gubbi S.R. Srinivas was found to have voted for the BJP’s third candidate, while Kolar legislator Srinivas Gowda voted for the Congress. Both had refused to join their party colleagues after JD (S) decided to move legislators to a hotel here, and the party had expected them to cross vote. However, Mr. Srinivas’s vote to the BJP candidate came as a surprise to many in party circles. Incidentally, the JD (S) had witnessed cross voting from eight of its legislators in favour of the then Congress candidate K.C. Ramamurthy in the Rajya Sabha poll during 2016, resulting in the defeat of the party’s official nominee B.M. Farooq.
