In a significant setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (Secular) coalition, the elections to four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka witnessed an unexpected twist as cross-voting and abstention caused them to lose a seat. The coalition's candidate, D Kupendra Reddy, narrowly missed securing a seat in the Upper House by nine votes.
Elected to the Rajya Sabha were Ajay Maken, Syed Nasir Hussain, and GC Chandrashekar from the Congress, along with BJP leader Narayansa Bhandage. Ajay and Syed Hussain received 47 votes each, Chandrashekar obtained 45 votes, and Narayan secured 47 votes. Kupendra Reddy managed to garner only 36 votes.
Each candidate needed a minimum of 45 primary votes to secure victory. For the JD(S) to win, they would have needed support from the BJP's extra votes, their own 19 legislators, and five votes from the Congress. The polling concluded at 4 pm, with 222 out of 223 votes cast, as Shorapur MLA Raja Venkatappa Naik died due to a heart attack on Sunday. In addition to Congress lawmakers, it is reported that three Independent MLAs also supported the Congress. One of the BJP MLAs, S T Somashekar, voted for the Congress’s Ajay Maken, the other, A Shivaram Hebbar, abstained.
Earlier in the day, BJP MLA ST Somashekar said that he would vote according to the candidate's commitment to allocate funds to his Yeshwanthapura constituency. "I will give my initial vote to the candidate pledging funds for the constituency,” he said. Somashekar had quit Congress and joined the BJP where he served as the minister (in the BJP government) and he was made the Mysuru district in-charge minister.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar took a jibe at the BJP and JD(S) alliance in Karnataka, saying even the BJP MLAs don't want to vote for their ally. Shivakumar said the BJP could get their Rajya Sabha election candidate elected with 45 votes but they took 48 votes, adding that even BJP legislators are not interested to vote for the JD(S).