Karnataka Rajya Sabha polls: Congress wins three seats, BJP one

BENGALURU: Congress candidates J C Chandrashekar, L Hanumanathaiah and Syed Naseer Hussain and BJP nominee Rajeev Chandrashekar were elected to Rajya Sabha on Monday amid high drama and unprecedented poll boycott by JD(S).The result sprang a few surprises as the maximum number of votes (50) were polled by BJP nominee Rajeev as it exceeded the strength of BJP members in the Assembly. This was followed by Congress’s Chandrashekar (46), Hanumanathaiah (44) and Naseer (42). JD(S) candidate BM Farooq got the votes of just 2 members, who had exercised their franchise before the JD(S) party leadership decided to boycott the election.

High drama

There was high drama since 11 am, after JD(S) leader H D Revanna alleged irregularities in voting. 
The controversy was triggered when Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa and MLA Baburao Chinchanasur erroneously marked the ballot paper with tick marks, rather than using preferential numbering to choose the candidates, as mandated by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The errors were spotted by party agents, who directed them to vote with new ballot papers. However, JD(S) leader H D Revanna - polling agent for his party - objected to the same, alleging that providing two ballot papers violated election regulations

Soon, other JD(S) MLAs led by its state president H D Kumaraswamy staged a dharna inside the polling booth and demanded that the votes be invalidated or the first ballot paper should be put into the ballot box.Two memorandums were also submitted to ECI by Farooq, demanding ECI to countermand the election. The commotion also disrupted the voting process.

Counting delay

Though the voting ended at 4 pm, there was a delay of more than three hours before the counting of votes began. Following the complaint by JD(S), ECI officials were awaiting instructions from Delhi. As soon as the response was received, which directed officials to segregate the votes of Thimmappa and Chinchanasur, counting began at about 7.15 pm.

Votes polled

Though 188 votes were cast, only 184 votes were counted, two were invalidated and two were set aside. All the four votes were of Thimmappa and Chinchanasur - two were rejected and two were segregated ballots due to the violations spotted by JD(S) leaders. The number of eligible voters, however, was 217 of which 30 were JD(S) legislators. Of these 30, only two cast their votes. Among Congress members, one MLA from Belur, Rudresh Gowda could not cast his vote.

Votes segregated

Election commission of India rejected the votes of two MLAs, Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa and Baburao Chinchanasur for violating voting procedure, as per Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. Based on a complaint by JD(S) candidate B M Farook, ECI said, “..rule 41 (1) of Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 provides that if an elector has inadvertently dealt with his ballot paper in such a manner that it cannot be conveniently used as ballot paper, the presiding officer on return of such ballot paper may issue another ballot paper only after satisfying about the inadvertence. This rule nowhere provides to issue a fresh ballot paper only to facilitate the change in marking preferences as in the present case. Therefore, the issuing of fresh ballot paper by the then RO is totally in violation of voting procedure...”It then directed the commission to segregate the ballot papers, before proceeding with the counting.