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BJP confident of winning three out of four Rajya Sabha seats
The BJP is hoping that the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) continue their stalemate and not reach a consensus to back anyone candidate from either party.
Bengaluru
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday held its second legislature party in as many days, trying to secure a victory for all three of its candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections on Friday.
“Our legislature party has concluded and we are confident that all three of our candidates will win,” Arvind Limbavalli, former minister and BJP legislator from Mahadevapura in Bengaluru, said.
He added that all discussion during the legislature party meeting was to ensure victory to all its official candidates.
The BJP has fielded Nirmala Sitharaman, Jaggesh and Lahar Singh Siroya as its three choices for the four vacant seats from the state.
The BJP can win two of these comfortably but will have to depend on the oppositions differences on trying to forge an alliance for the third.
To be sure, each candidate needs 45 votes to win. After securing the victory of its first two candidates, the saffron outfit will be left with 32 Surplus votes for Siroya.
The BJP is hoping that the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) continue their stalemate and not reach a consensus to back anyone candidate from either party.
The Congress can win one seat on its own but will require the support of its arch rival to get its second choice candidate, Mansoor Ali Khan, over the line. The Congress has just 25 Surplus votes for Khan.
The JD(S) also has 32 votes and is hopeful that once the Congress candidate is eliminated in the first round, the Sonia Gandhi-led party will transfer its second preferential votes to the former prime Minister HD Deve Gowda-led regional outfit.
If the BJP can manage to secure all three seats, it would ease some pressure off chief minister Basavaraj Bommai who has not fared very well in recent by-election.
Under Bommai, the BJP had lost in Hanagal bypolls despite the fact that it is the Chief minister’s home district and adjoining constituency.
The BJP wants to return to power on its own in the 2023 assembly elections and Bommai hopes he will lead the saffron party to a victory and remain the front runner for the post of chief minister.
