Karnataka: JD(S), Congress in war of nerves as calm BJP eyes Rajya Sabha wins

Each candidate needs at least 45 votes from MLAs to be elected to the Upper House of Parliament.

While the BJP can comfortably win two of the four seats and the Congress can win one, there are three contenders from each of the three parties for the fourth seat.

Voter distribution

The BJP has fielded Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-turned-party spokesperson Jaggesh and incumbent MLC Lehar Singh Siroya as its candidates.

It has 121 seats and the support of an independent MLA in the legislative assembly.

The party has already divided its MLAs block-wise. The first block of 45 MLAs, including Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, have been asked to give their first-preference vote to Sitharaman, while the second block of 45 MLAs will vote for Jaggesh.

The remaining 32 first-preference votes will be given to Siroya, as will 90 second-preference votes.

The BJP is confident of convincing 13 MLAs of the Congress and the JD(S) to give their first-preference vote to Siroya in the hopes of getting all of its three candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha.

The Congress, despite having only 70 MLAs, has fielded Jairam Ramesh and Mansoor Ali as its candidates.

While Ramesh will receive 45 first preference votes, the party — especially legislature party chief Siddaramaiah — has urged the JD(S) to transfer its votes to the Congress’ second candidate.

It is 25 votes short of electing this candidate.

The JD(S), meanwhile, has only 32 MLAs — 13 short of the required 45 votes — but has fielded D Kupendra Reddy as its candidate. It has urged Congress to transfer its votes — otherwise meant for its second candidate — to Reddy.

With neither the Congress nor the JD(S) ready to yield to the other party’s demand, the fourth Rajya Sabha seat in Karnataka has become a matter of curious political battle, especially given BJP candidate Siroya’s history of success when it comes to weaning away votes from rival parties in MLC elections.

Siddaramaiah-Kumaraswamy tussle

In a bid to supposedly avoid the poaching of JD(S) MLAs, former chief minister and JD(S) legislature party chief HD Kumaraswamy has herded them to a resort in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, Congress is firm on its decision to go ahead with two candidates and has demanded “payback’ from JD(S).

“We didn’t field a candidate in the previous Rajya Sabha election against former prime minister HD Devegowda. During the coalition government, despite the JD(S) having fewer MLAs, Kumaraswamy was made the chief minister,” Siddaramaiah told reporters on Thursday.

“Now is the time for the JD(S) to prove that they are not the B-team of the BJP. If they really want to fight communal forces, they must retire their candidate and transfer votes to the Congress,” he added.

The JD(S) has taken the same “opposing communal forces” platform to demand support from Congress.

“To defeat the BJP, Congress should support JD(S) which has more votes than it. There is no doubt that history & people will decide in future based on the outcome of this election result. I firmly believe that honourable @rssurjewala will understand this point,” Kumaraswamy tweeted after shifting his MLAs to a resort on Thursday.

With polling less than 24 hours away, none of the parties has enough votes for the fourth Rajya Sabha seat.

While the Congress and the JD(S), still reeling from trust issues after the collapse of their coalition government, are in a standoff over votes, the BJP hopes to keep the tension alive and steal a victory with second-preference votes in favour of Siroya.

The compromise — or the lack thereof — between Congress and the JD(S) is likely to set the stage for political calculations for the upcoming Assembly elections.