Five in fray for four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka
Bengaluru: Five candidates, including three from the ruling Congress and one each from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) filed nominations for the biennial election to four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, an EC official said on Monday.
"Of the five candidates, four have filed nominations on the last date (Monday), including three from the Congress and one from the BJP, while JD-S candidate B.M. Farooq had filed nomination on March 9," the Election Commission (EC) official said.
The Congress candidates are L. Hanumanthaiah, G.C. Chandrasekhar and Syed Naseer Hussain, and BJP candidate is Rajeev Chandrashekar, who is seeking a second term, as his first term as an Independent member ends on April 2.
The election has been necessitated to fill the vacancies arising out of retirement of incumbent members Basawaraj Patil, Rahman Khan and R. Ramakrishna of the Congress, and Chandrasekhar.
In the 225-member state legislative assembly, including one nominated, the Congress has 122 legislators, BJP 48 and JD-S 37. Of all, 7 seats are vacant.
As each candidate needs 45 votes to win the contest, the Congress is in a position to get two of its nominees elected easily, while its third candidate with 37 votes will have to get 13 more votes to make up for the shortfall.
With Chandrashekar assured of victory by virtue of the BJP having 48 votes, the contest will be for the fourth seat between the Congress and the JD-S, whose strength got reduced to 37 after three of its members were suspended for revolting against its leadership.
The JD-S also fears cross-voting by some of its members in favour of the ruling Congress' third nominee.
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Sehwag's son Aaryavir smashes double hundred in Cooch Behar Trophy
Shillong, Nov 21: India great Virender Sehwag's son Aaryavir on Thursday smashed an unbeaten 200 off 229 balls in Delhi U-19's Cooch Behar Trophy contest against Meghalaya here.
Opening the batting alongside Arnav Bugga, Aaryavir hammered 34 fours and couple of sixes in his special effort. Bugga made a fine 114 off 108 balls.
In response to Meghalaya's 260, Delhi reached 468 for two in 81 overs at stumps on day two.
Aaryavir was batting alongside Dhanya Nakra (98 batting) at the close of play.
Cooch Behar Trophy is India's premier multi-day domestic event for the U-19 age group.
