Bengaluru: The ruling Congress in Karnataka bagged three Rajya Sabha seats and BJP one in the biennial election, amid a boycott of the poll by the JDS, alleging electoral malpractice.
Congress' Dr L Hanumanthaiah, Dr Syed Naseer Hussain and G C Chandrasekhar, and also BJP's Rajeev Chandrashekar were declared elected after a complaint by the JDS to the Election Commission caused delay in taking up counting of votes.
With its strength in the Assembly, the Congress was sure of winning two seats and eyed the third seat and won it with the support of JDS rebels and independents.
The fight was for the third seat between the third candidate of the Congress' Chandrasekhar and JDS' B M Farooq, with the ruling party pulling off a bonus victory.
JDS has 37 MLAs, falling short of the required 44 votes by 14, with its seven rebels plumping for the Congress. Businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar secured 50 votes, six more than required, with the support from smaller parties and independents.
Congress' Chandrasekhar received 46 votes, Hanumanthaiah 44 and Hussain 42.
Two votes were declared invalid and two rejected. Taking cognisance of a complaint by JDS, the Election Commission directed the Returning Offficer M S Kumaraswamy to reject two votes cast by Congress MLAs and seggregate them before taking up counting as EC found violation of procedures under the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.
JDS boycotted the polls midway alleging electoral malpractice and collusion of the returning officer with the Congress.
Rejecting the charge, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said: "It appears they (JDS) are desperate...they havetried everything.. they had gone to the court (on seven rebel JDS MLA issue), they failed in the court, and desperately they are making these allegations."
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
The event occurred at midnight, when the delivery executive was issued an order containing three packets of rat poison. According to his account shared later in a video, the timing of the order immediately raised concern. On reaching the delivery address, he found that the woman who had placed the order visibly distressed and crying.
Believing the situation required caution, the delivery executive chose not to hand over the items and spoke to the woman and tried to understand what she was going through, telling her that no problem justified harming oneself. During the conversation, he directly asked whether the poison had been ordered with the intention of ending her life.
Although the woman initially denied it, he continued to communicate with her and persuaded her to rethink. The woman cancelled the order, following a brief talk. The delivery executive later said in the video that the decision gave him a sense of comfort since he believed he had been able to prevent a potential tragedy.
After the video surfaced on social media, users praised the delivery executive for acting with care and responsibility. “Humanity at its best,” one user wrote, while another commented, “That’s not just a delivery guy, that’s a guardian angel in a green jacket.”
