BENGALURU: The battle lines are clearly drawn for the contentious fourth MP seat, with the three major parties taking an aggressive stand to fight to the finish, although none has the requisite 45 votes to win. As things stand, it looks like the election is headed for a dramatic finish. The BJP, as the ruling party, has a slender edge, considering it holds the purse-strings of the state.
Interestingly, for the first time, arch rivals CLP leader Siddaramaiah and KPCC president DK Shivakumar have determinedly united against senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge on the issue of support to JDS candidate Kupendra Reddy. Kharge has even pitched for it with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, but since Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar turned down the proposal, the central leadership has backed them. The last day for withdrawal of nominations was Friday.
The Congress, on its part, has already issued a whip to MLAs to vote for its candidates. All parties are expected to issue a whip too, and although voting is by secret ballot, members have to show their votes to the party. CLP leader Siddaramaiah, who is clear that the Congress should stand on its own strength, asked, “Why should we withdraw the second candidate?” Reminded by the media that the Congress does not have the required 45 seats, he asked, “You tell me who has the seats, BJP or JDS? We will win. The conscientious will vote for us.’’
Asked how many votes the Congress will get, he countered, “We will get the votes we need, we have 71 second preference votes. It is the high command’s decision to field the second candidate, Mansoor Khan. We have fielded him in the belief that we will win.”
With this, fears of cross-voting have increased. If the Congress is expecting cross-voting to bail it out, it could be expecting votes from five JDS candidates -- Kolar MLA Srinivas Gowda, Gubbi MLA Srinivas, G T Deve Gowda and other unhappy leaders. Last time, eight JDS leaders had cross-voted. The Congress, which has 69 MLAs, has been joined by independent Sharath Bache Gowda, and could be expecting support from H Nagesh, as Siddaramaiah claimed they have 71 MLAs.
BJP has 120 MLAs and is depending on two Independent MLAs, Mahesh and Nagesh. JDS has 32 votes, but whether it can retain the votes for the June 10 poll, is the big question.