Congress wins three Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka, BJP one

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress in Karnataka won three seats and the BJP one in the Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka on Tuesday.

Those who were elected to the Upper House are Ajay Maken, G C Chandrasekhar and Syed Naseer Hussain, all belonging to the Congress, and Narayansa K Bhandage of the BJP.

Five candidates were in the fray for the four seats in the elections, including JD(S) contestant D Kupendra Reddy.

The elections were marred by cross-voting. While one of the BJP MLAs, S T Somashekar, voted for the Congress’s Maken, the other, A Shivaram Hebbar, abstained.

‘Victory of principals, morality’

Congress general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala called the party’s win in the Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka as the victory of principles, ideals, democracy and morality.

“This is the victory of principles, ideals, democracy and morality. This is a rejection of the opportunistic, unholy and undemocratic alliance of BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) which is founded on muscle power of ED, Income Tax and CBI and money power,” Surjewala told reporters here after the election results were announced.

He took a dig at former chief minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy for fielding the fifth candidate D Kupendra Reddy.

“When you did not have the requisite legislators, why did you put up a tycoon who has lots of money in the hope that he will be able to buy the loyalty and vote of legislators,” Surjewala said.