Karnataka Rajya Sabha Polls Amid Resort Politics, Cross-Voting Worry
NDTV
The election, taking place today, features five candidates, including Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain, and GC Chandrasekhar from the Congress, Narayansa Bhandage from the BJP, and Kupendra Reddy from JD(S).
To fill four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka, the Congress shifted all its MLAs to a private resort on Monday, signaling concerns about potential cross-voting. The election, taking place today, features five candidates, including Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain, and GC Chandrasekhar from the Congress, Narayansa Bhandage from the BJP, and Kupendra Reddy from JD(S).
The voting began at 9 am and will go on till 4 pm before the counting begins at 5 pm. The MLAs, who were holed up in a hotel yesterday, traveled together by bus from the hotel to Vidhana Soudha today to cast their votes.
The Congress, currently holding 134 MLAs, faces a tough challenge from the BJP with 66 MLAs, JD(S) with 19, and four others. The Congress claims the support of two independents and Darshan Puttanaiah from Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha among the 'others' and is confident of securing three seats. Interestingly, G Janardhana Reddy, a mining baron and a former BJP minister from Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha, met with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah yesterday
