Bengaluru, June 09: The Rajya Sabha polls for four seats in Karnataka scheduled for Friday are most likely to see a tight contest for the fourth seat as none of the three parties has enough first preference votes to seal the deal.
On Wednesday former CM H D Kumaraswamy sought Congress’s help to keep communal forces away from winning the fourth seat. He urged the Congress leadership to support JDS candidate Kupendra Reddy to beat BJP’s, Leher Singh.
Including independent candidates, BJP has a total of 122 seats in Vidhanasabha, which can ensure a win of 2 Rajya Sabha seats. Leher Singh will be left with 32 first preference votes. He needs 13 more first preference votes to seal the spot. That’s why BJP is eying for cross-voting.
On the other hand, Congress with 69 MLAs can send Jairam Ramesh to the Parliament’s upper house without any problem. But, Mansoor Ali Khan will be left with only 29 votes. If Congress gets support from JDS which has 32 MLAs, then Mansoor Ali Khan can win.
Kumaraswamy also had a discussion with Randeep Singh Surjewala, who promised him to discuss the matter with state Congress leaders. Later, HDK warned Siddaramaiah not to take the regional party’s influence lightly. It may prove costly in the future.
JDS leaders are affirmative about their candidature for the fourth place in Rajyasabha. The last date to formally withdraw the nomination is already over and officially all the candidates who have filed nomination are in the race for the upper house quota.
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