NEW DELHI, June 10: Large scale cross-voting from the opposition ranks in allocating the second preference votes helped the ruling BJP in Karnataka to claim three seats to the Rajya Sabha with the remaining one seat going to the Congress. The former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S) received a raw deal unable to win any seat.
BJP’s Nirmala Sitharaman, the union finance minister, Jaggesh and Lehar Singh Siroya took three out of the four seats, while the Congress’s Jairam Ramesh won the only remaining seat. BJP National General Secretary CT Ravi confirmed his party won the three seats, while one went to the Congress.
Needing 45 votes each to get elected, Ms Sitharaman and Mr Ramesh polled 46 votes, Jaggesh got 44 and Mr Siroya 33, Mr Ravi said, but Siroya went past the finish line in the counting of the second preference votes due to cross-voting by the MLAs from other parties. Considering the respective strength of various parties, the BJP was certain to win two and the Congress one seat.
“We were already winning two seats in Karnataka easily. But we got one more seat as a bonus. I’d like to thank everyone for this,” Ravi told reporters. “There are people in other parties who like the work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and have faith in him. They have helped us. I’d like to thank them too,” Ravi said, adding he doesn’t know who all voted for the third BJP candidate. “Mathematics works in a democracy, and we have won the numbers game,” he said.
Despite not having an adequate number of votes to win the fourth seat from the state assembly, all the big three political parties in the state – BJP, Congress and JDS – had fielded candidates for the seat, forcing an election.
(Manas Dasgupta)
