In a humorous exchange with media personnel on Friday, a Karnataka Janata Dal (Secular) leader expressed who he voted for in the Rajya Sabha election, and it was not the party to which he belongs.
Speaking to reporters after casting his vote, JD(S) leader K Srinivasa Gowda said, “I have voted for the Congress because I love it”.
#watch , I have voted for Congress because I like it: K Srinivasa Gowda, Karnataka JD(S) leader on Rajya Sabha polls pic.twitter.com/oMSkdlYSuQ
— ANI (@ANI) 10 June 2022
Voting in the Rajya Sabha elections for four seats in Karnataka continues on Friday as suspense continues over the outcome of the fourth seat, for which all three political parties are contenders, though none of them have enough votes to win it. Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) are voters in this election.
The voting which started at 9 am will go on till 4 pm and the counting of votes will take place at 5 pm after polling. Six candidates are in the fray in the Rajya Sabha elections from the state, making a fight for the fourth seat necessary.
Despite not having enough votes to win the fourth seat from the state assembly, all three political parties – BJP, Congress and JD(S) have fielded candidates for the seat by forcing them to go to polls. Six candidates are in the fray for the Rajya Sabha elections from the state – Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-politician Jaggesh and outgoing BJP MLC Lahar Singh Siroya, former Union minister Jairam Ramesh and state general secretary Mansoor Ali Khan. Congress, and former JD(S) MP D Kupendra Reddy.
Sitharaman and Ramesh are seeking re-election to the Upper House of Parliament for one consecutive term from the state. A candidate needs the support of 45 MLAs to win and depending on their strength in the assembly, the BJP can win two and the Congress one.
After getting two Rajya Sabha candidates (Sitaraman and Jaggesh) elected in the assembly on their own, the BJP will be left with an additional 32 MLA votes. After electing Jairam Ramesh, Congress will be left with 25 MLA votes, while JD(S) has only 32 MLAs, which is not enough to win a single seat.
The fight for the fourth seat will see a direct fight between Siroya (BJP), Khan (Congress) and Reddy (JDS). While Siroya and Reddy are short on votes of 13 MLAs each, Khan will need 20 MLAs.
Since this election has an open ballot system, each legislator (voter) must show his ballot paper to his designated party agents after making his choice. According to sources, BJP has appointed its national general secretary and MLA CT Ravi as its agent, while state Congress president DK Shivakumar himself will shoulder the responsibility and senior JD(S) leader HD Revanna (elder son of Supreem Deve Gowda). Work for his party. Fearing cross voting, all the three political parties have issued whips asking their respective MLAs to vote for their candidates.
The concern to ensure that its numbers remain intact and there is no cross-voting for the JD(S) and the party last night shifted its MLAs to a hotel in the city. Its Kolar MLA K Srinivasa Gowda has already announced that he will vote for the Congress candidate. The JD(S) fears a repeat of the 2016 Rajya Sabha elections, when eight rebel MLAs voted against its official candidate and supported the Congress. Most of these rebels managed to get Congress tickets for the 2018 assembly elections. There are reports that some MLAs are also in touch with BJP. Though the JD(S) leadership has tried to reach out to four to five disgruntled MLAs, who have kept a distance from the party for some time, some of them are said to have attended the legislature party meeting last night. Didn’t happen, which caused concern. In regional dress.
The ruling BJP, which is confident of winning the three seats it is contesting, has made final efforts to ensure that all its votes are intact and cast legitimately by conducting a mock voting exercise. He also held a meeting of the legislature party before the election. While the opposition camp took an interesting turn, as top leaders of the Congress and JD(S) tried to reach out to each other’s legislators till the last minute, talks were held between them to make some sort of formal understanding. After reaching the standoff, both the sides stuck to their respective stand.
JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy offered to trade second-preference votes with the Congress and “start anew” forgetting the past between the two political parties, but the grand old party made it clear to the regional party. Did that it was time now that former PM HD Deve Gowda got elected to Rajya Sabha with his support in June 2020. A day before the elections, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah also wrote an open letter on Thursday. The JD(S) legislators urged him to cast his “conscience vote” in favor of his party’s second candidate Khan, saying his victory would be a victory for the “secular ideology” which is followed by both the parties.
While Kumaraswamy strongly urged the Congress to support his party’s candidate – Reddy – to strengthen “secular forces”, he accused Siddaramaiah of helping the BJP win by defeating the JD(S). On its part, the ruling party has assigned three ministers – R Ashok, V Sunil Kumar and BC Nagesh – to oversee the voting process. According to party sources, the MLAs will vote in three batches in favor of their nominated candidates.
Election to the four Rajya Sabha seats is necessary as the tenure of members Nirmala Sitharaman and BJP’s KC Ramamurthy and Jairam Ramesh are set to end on June 30. Oscar Fernandes, the fourth member of Congress, passed away last year.
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