Rajya Sabha polls: Cross-voting worries for BJP, Congress

BENGALURU: Even as former union minister Jairam Ramesh and KPCC general secretary Mansoor Ali Khan filed their nominations for Rajya Sabha elections on Monday, there were concerns within Congress over cross-voting.  Hours later, BJP announced its third candidate MLC Lehar Singh Siroya, taking the contest a notch higher. 

BJP on Sunday announced Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and actor Jaggesh as its candidates. But after Congress ambitiously propped up its second candidate, BJP, seemingly as an afterthought, announced Lehar Singh’s candidature on Monday evening. Lehar Singh is a member of the Legislative Council whose term ends shortly. All the three BJP candidates are expected to file their nomination papers on Tuesday, the last day to file nominations. BJP has 121 MLAs and will need 92 votes for its two nominees Nirmala Sitaraman and Jaggesh. 

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With the support of independent MLA Mahesh, it will be left with only 30 votes for its third nominee and will be short by 16 votes. Asked where BJP would get the extra votes from, Lehar Singh told TNIE that he will come back with full details on Tuesday. With this, BJP’s headache of cross-voting too increases manifold.

During the last Rajya Sabha polls in Congress, the second candidate got more votes than the main nominee. It is another story that both got elected, but anything could happen this time. Sources said that though a whip has been issued and MLAs are expected to show their ballot papers to the polling agent, there are still fears of cross-voting. Congress has 69 MLAs, while an independent, Sharath Bache Gowda, is supporting the party, taking the number to 70. Now, 46 MLAs will be told to cast their first-preference votes to Ramesh and the remaining to Khan.

Ramesh filed the nomination papers on Monday, accompanied by Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, CLP leader Siddaramaiah and KPCC president DK Shivakumar. Congress is certain about Ramesh’s victory, but is not sure of Khan’s fate. The JDS, which has 32 MLAs, has fielded Kupendra Reddy. JDS was expecting extra votes from either of the two parties, but its hopes are dashed now with Khan and Lehar Singh coming into the picture.