Ajay Maken Elected to RS From Karnataka

 Bengaluru: Treasurer of All India Congress Committee (KPCC) Ajay Maken entered Rajya Sabha from Karnataka after he was declared a winner in the polls held in Bengaluru on Tuesday and along with him two other Congress nominees-Syed Naseer Hussain and G.C. Chandrashekar were also declared winners. The biennial Rajya Sabha elections were held for the four seats in which Congress won in 3 seats and BJP in one.

While Ajay Maken is from New Delhi, Syed Naseer Hussain and G.C. Chandrashekar belong to Karnataka.

The main opposition party in Karnataka- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had fielded Narayana Bhandage as its nominee for the Rajya Sabha and he won the seat while BJP’s alliance partner Janata Dal Secular (JDS) fielded Kupendra Reddy.

In the outcome of counting of votes, Congress nominees-Ajay Maken and Syed Naseer Hussain polled 47 votes each while another nominee G.C. Chandrashekar secured 45 votes to retain the seat. The BJP nominee Narayana Bhandage won the Rajya Sabha election by securing 47 votes while JDS nominee Kupendra Reddy polled 36 votes to lose the election.

Announcing the victory of its nominees in the Rajya Sabha elections, president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar told reporters in Vidhana Soudha that all its nominees won in the first round of counting and attributed the victory of the nominees to unity displayed by the party. Shivakumar said the tactics of the opposition parties-BJP and JDS did not yield results as party MLAs did not fall into the lure tactics.

In the Karnataka Assembly, Congress has a strength of 134 from 135 after the demise of its incumbent MLA Raja Venkatappa Nayak who represented Surpur Assembly seat. Raja Vekatappa Nayak died of cardiac arrest in Bengaluru a couple of days back.

The BJP has 66 MLAs while the JDS has 19 MLAs and four of the MLAs are independents. Three of the four independents have declared their support for the Congress party which include Latha, MLA representing Harapanahalli Assembly seat, Darshan Puttannaiah, MLA representing Melukote Assembly and Puttaswamy Gowda, MLA representing Gauribidanur Assembly seat. Former Minister and MLA Gali Janardhan Reddy, MLA representing Gangavathi Assembly seat is said to have casted his vote in favour of Congress nominees.

In the polling held on Tuesday, BJP MLA and former minister S.T. Somashekar stated that he voted as per his conscience while BJP termed that Somashekar had cross voted in the polling. Another BJP MLA and former minister Shivaram Hebbar refrained from voting and the reasons for him not casting his voting was not known to BJP leaders immediately.

AICC general secretary and Karnataka incharge of Congress party Randeep Singh Surjewala termed the victory of Congress nominees in Rajya Sabha polls in Karnataka as a “decisive victory” of Congress led India National Development Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A).