Voting underway for four RS seats in Karnataka as Congress eyes rival camp support
Bengaluru, Feb 27: Amid cross-voting fears, voting in the elections for the four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka is underway on Tuesday, with the ruling Congress claiming it could get support from the rival camp.
Fearing cross-voting, both the Congress and the BJP-JD(S) alliance huddled their MLAs in a private resort on Monday and held a workshop for the new members on the election process and how to cast their votes.
The Congress has 133 MLAs, excluding the Speaker, while the BJP and JD(S) have 66 and 19 legislators respectively, in the 223-member House. Others account for four. However, one Congress MLA died on Sunday.
Congress sources claimed that the party has the support of four others.
Of the four others, the ruling party claims the support of two independents and Darshan Puttanaiah from Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha, and is confident of winning three seats.
Interestingly, the fourth one - G Janardhana Reddy of Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha had met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday. Reddy, a mining baron, is a former BJP minister.
ALSO READ: Voting underway for four RS seats in Karnataka
"Besides, we may get three votes from the rival camp," a top Congress source told PTI.
On Tuesday, voting began at 9 am and will go on till 4 pm. The counting will start from 5 pm.
The MLAs will exercise their voting rights using an open ballot system.
They have to display their voting preference to the nominated polling agents.
The Rajya Sabha seats fell vacant following the retirement of four members - Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar (BJP) and Congress' G C Chandrashekhar, Syed Naseer Hussain and L Hanumanthaiah.
The ruling party has fielded Chandrashekhar, Naseer Hussain and former union minister Ajay Maken.
The BJP has fielded Narayansa Bhandage, besides JD(S) candidate D Kupendra Reddy as the NDA candidate which has made the election interesting.
All parties have issued whips to the MLAs, who are the voters in Tuesday's poll, amid apprehensions of cross-voting.
According to official sources, each candidate has to get 45 votes to win, if there are only four candidates in the fray, but in the case of more candidates, the preference votes kick in.
BJP MLA Arvind Bellad was confident about the victory of both the candidates.
"There's a huge disgruntlement among Congress MLAs. Not even a single rupee has been released to anyone for any developmental work. In the last nine months, the Congress government has been completely defunct. We are confident that the disgruntled MLAs will vote for our NDA candidate," he told PTI.
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Congress to have massive organisational reshuffle: KC Venugopal
Ahmedabad, Apr 8 (PTI): The Congress is going to have a "massive organisational reshuffle", AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said on Tuesday as the party's top leaders met here and vowed to embark on the "path of social justice" espoused by Sardar Patel.
Briefing reporters after the extended Congress Working Committee meeting at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial here, Venugopal noted that the Congress has dedicated this year to a complete restructuring of the party organisation and the issue was discussed at length at the meeting.
"We are going to have a massive organisational reshuffle, and there will be guidelines for the same. Our general secretaries and in-charges are on it," he said.
Venugopal also stressed that measures to empower the party's district unit chiefs will be rolled out soon.
"We have already decided on that issue, empowering the DCC presidents and duties and powers of the DCCs has been discussed in various forums, already general secretaries and in-charges have approved the proposals and we are going to roll out that proposal in the near future," he said while replying to queries.
Venugopal said the Extended CWC passed a resolution that "our party will walk on the path showed to us by Sardar Patel ji".
"He stood up against the oppression of the British, fighting for the rights of workers and farmers. He rejected communal forces after Bapu’s assassination. He fought for an India where everyone had fundamental rights and freedoms.
"Today, as we embark on the path of social justice, our Nyay Path follows the same principles laid down by Sardar Patel," he said.
In his opening address at the meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also asserted the party's claim to Sardar Patel's legacy and accused the BJP and RSS of trying to usurp it under a "well-planned conspiracy" against national heroes.
Kharge stressed that the Congress is taking forward the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and Patel.
"Sardar Patel Saheb lives in our hearts, lives in our thoughts. We are taking his legacy forward. We have organised this CWC meeting in Ahmedabad at Sardar Patel Museum with this thought in mind. We pay our heartfelt tributes to him," he said.
Earlier in the day, AICC general secretary Sachin Pilot told reporters that the Congress intends to create more empowered district units with their presidents having enhanced accountability, responsibility and political strength.
He said that the Congress would fight the upcoming elections with strength and expressed confidence that the Congress and its supporting ideologies would come together to give the BJP and the NDA a tough challenge.
Briefing reporters outside the venue, Pilot said, "The intention of the Congress president and the Leader of Opposition is to create a more empowered district unit."
"The accountability, the responsibility and the political strength that we have thus given to the district presidents is set to be enhanced," he stressed.
The final outcome will be decided after the convention on Wednesday but the intention of the Congress is to make the District Pradesh Congress (DCC) presidents more empowered than before, the former Union minister said, adding the move is aimed at expanding the party's reach in villages, divisions and booths.
"The year 2025 is the year of the organisation to strengthen our workers, expand our party ideology and to make sure that the Congress reaches out in a mass contact programme through padyatras and door-to-door programmes," he said.
The party wants to send a clear message not just to its opponents but to its supporters and workers that the Congress will not step back and fight aggressively both within Parliament and outside, and make sure it wins the next political challenge, Pilot said.
"Elections are fought to be won, the next few elections we will fight with strength and I am supremely confident that the Congress and its supporting ideologies will come together to give the BJP and the NDA a tough challenge," Pilot said.
He said the resolution passed at the end of the session on April 9 will be named 'Nyay Path'.
"Tomorrow' session will write a new chapter in history," he said
The grand old party has announced that the Ahmedabad Session will be themed "Nyaypath: Sankalp, Samarpan aur Sangharsh", with more than 1,700 elected and co-opted AICC members attending the main conclave on April 9 on the banks of the Sabarmati river between the Sabarmati Ashram and Kochrab Ashram.
