The JD(S) in Karnataka has moved its legislators to a resort in Whitefield in Bengaluru, a day ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections on Friday, June 10, seemingly in a bid to avoid any attempts of poaching or defection by the MLAs. According to sources, the legislators were first moved to a resort in Whitefield and will later be moved to a hotel in the Central Business District.
Six candidates are in the fray for the Rajya Sabha poll to four seats from Karnataka, necessitating a heated contest for the fourth seat. Despite not having the adequate number of votes to win the fourth seat from the state Assembly, all the three political parties in the state — BJP, Congress and JD(S) — have fielded candidates for the seat, forcing an election.
The six candidates in the fray for Rajya Sabha polls from the state are — Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-politician Jaggesh and outgoing MLC Lehar Singh Siroya from the BJP, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and state general secretary Mansoor Ali Khan from the Congress, and former MP D Kupendra Reddy from the JD(S).
A candidate needs the support of 45 MLAs to win, and based on their strength in the Legislative Assembly, the BJP has 122 MLAs and can win two seats and the Congress has 70, including an Independent candidate, which assures them of one seat. After getting two Rajya Sabha candidates (Sitharaman and Jaggesh) elected on its own strength in the Assembly, the BJP will be left with an additional 32 MLA votes. The Congress will be left with 24 MLA votes after electing Jairam Ramesh, while the JD(S) has only 32 MLAs, which is not sufficient to win a seat. Counting of votes will take place on June 10 at 5 pm.
While the Congress was seeking JD(S)’s support for its second candidate, the talks failed and JD(S) went ahead and fielded its own candidate. JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy had made an offer to trade second preference votes with the Congress but the Congress made it clear to the regional party that it was now time for it to return the favour, pointing out that former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda got elected to Rajya Sabha last time with its support in June 2020.
Speaking to reporters in Haveri, Siddaramaiah, noting that Congress had first fielded its second candidate (Khan), asked the JD(S) to retire its candidate and make its MLAs vote in favour of his party candidate. "We had not fielded a candidate, when Deve Gowda had contested for RS last time (2020). We also made Kumaraswamy the chief minister. Now, support us if you really want to defeat the BJP," he said, adding that if JD(S) wanted to defeat BJP, they should not have fielded a candidate after Congress fielded one for the fourth seat.
Countering Siddaramaiah's claims of supporting Deve Gowda, Kumaraswamy said it was the then Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa who contacted him first and conveyed the BJP high command's decision not to field a candidate against his father, as they wanted the former PM in the Upper House of Parliament.
As there are three candidates for the fourth seat and none of them have adequate number of votes to win, a situation may arise where the second and third preferential votes may have to be counted if necessary. Sources say that the way things stand now, JD(S) MLAs are likely to cross vote for the BJP.
The BJP which held its Legislature Party meet on June 8, Wednesday night under the leadership of Bommai and state President Nalin Kumar Kateel issued a whip to its MLAs asking them to vote for party candidates. It has tasked three ministers — R Ashoka, V Sunil Kumar and B C Nagesh — to oversee the voting process.