BENGALURU: With anxiety over the Rajya Sabha elections out of the way, and less than three weeks left for the Council elections, hectic lobbying has started in the Congress and JDS -- while the Congress gets two seats, the JDS gets only one seat. The Council retirees on the nominated list are Congress members Thippanna Kemakanur, K Abdul Jabbar, Dr Jayamma Ramachandra, Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi and Ivan D’Souza, while the retirees on the elected list are Naseer Ahmed (Congress), M C Venugopal (Congress), Jayamma (Congress), HM Revanna (Congress), NS Boseraj (Congress), TA Saravana (JDS), DU Mallikarjuna (Independent but close to BS Yediyurappa).
Among the frontrunners in the Congress are former minister Naseer Ahmed and Boseraj, who are among the retirees, former minister MR Seetharam and Rajya Sabha retiree Professor MV Rajeev Gowda.The JDS names doing the rounds are Kupendra Reddy, a Rajya Sabha retiree who will not be renominated to the RS, TA Saravana and city president R Prakash. Many heavyweights in the JDS who lost the Assembly elections narrowly, are also queuing up to be considered.
In all, there are 12 vacancies -- seven elected and five nominated. All the nominated positions will go to the BJP, which is in power. The Congress and JDS are fighting for just three positions. Since there are seven vacancies, and the strength of the House is 223, including the nominated member, each aspirant will need 29 votes to get elected. The Congress, with 68 seats, can elect only two members, while JDS, with 34 seats, can elect only one. The BJP has enough votes for four seats. There is hectic lobbying for these seats, and as one BJP aspirant told The New Indian Express, “I don’t want to be nominated among the five, I want to fight the election and win.’’
Supporters celebrate ‘victory’ of leaders
Bengaluru: The supporters of JDS patriarch HD Deve Gowda, Congressman Mallikarjun Kharge, Ashok Gasti and Eranna Kadadi (BJP) have started celebrations, with the Assembly putting up a note saying their applications were in order. The formal announcement that they were elected unopposed is scheduled to be made at 3pm Friday. The RS polls, scheduled for June 19, will not be necessary. Independent candidate Sanga-mesh Chickanaragund’s affidavit was rejected as he filed it in the old format. Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said scrutiny was over. With this, the new list of 12 RS members comprises Jairam Ramesh, Rahman Khan, Oscar Fernandes, L Hanumanthaiah, Dr Syed Naseer Hussain (all Congress), Rajeev Chandrashekar, K C Ramamurthy, Nirmala Sitharaman (all BJP), in addition to these four.