Rajya Sabha election: Karnataka BJP MLA ST Somasekhar hints voting for Congress

There has been speculation about Somasekhar joining the Congress, but he did not make any comments on it.

Amid concerns over cross-voting in the Karnataka Rajya Sabha elections, BJP MLA ST Somasekhar hinted that he voted for the Congress in the poll, which is currently underway at Bengaluru’s Vidhana Soudha. The Yashvantpura MLA said he voted for the party which is giving funds to his constituency.

Rajya Sabha election: Karnataka BJP MLA ST Somasekhar hints voting for Congress

When Somasekhar was asked about which party he cast his vote for, he replied, “I gave my vote to those who give funds to my constituency; I voted for my conscience.”

There has been speculation about Somasekhar joining the Congress, but he did not make any comments on it.

The Congress has fielded three candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections — renominated Syed Naseer Hussain and GC Chandrashekar and Ajay Maken, the AICC treasurer.

The BJP, with 66 MLAs, has given the ticket to Narayana Krishna Bhandage, a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The Congress had 135 MLAs but became short of one after Surpur MLA Raja Venkatappa Naik passed away in Bengaluru on Sunday. In the Legislative Assembly, Shivakumar paid condolences to Naik.

The JD(S) and BJP, now electoral allies for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, held a joint meeting of the legislators at a private hotel in Bengaluru yesterday.

JD(S) leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, who has fielded party man and business magnate D Kupendra Reddy as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee, exuded confidence at the meeting saying that they would get “conscience votes’’ from “unhappy” Congress MLAs.

Along with Karnataka, polling for Rajyasabha seats is underway at Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh as well. BJP, SP and the Congress party alleged each other of poaching MLAs in order to win the elections.