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Cong names Kharge for K’taka RS seat; another Guj MLA quits
Four Rajya Sabha members — two from the Congress (BK Hariprasad and Rajeev Gowda), Prabhakar Kore of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular) leader D Kupendra Reddy — are retiring on completion of their terms on June 25.
The Congress on Friday named veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge as its candidate for the June 19 Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka.
Four Rajya Sabha members — two from the Congress (BK Hariprasad and Rajeev Gowda), Prabhakar Kore of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular) leader D Kupendra Reddy — are retiring on completion of their terms on June 25.
In the 223-member Karnataka assembly, a candidate will require 44 votes to be elected to the Upper House of Parliament.
The BJP, with 117 legislators, is set to get two seats while the Congress, which has 68 members, will bag one.
The JD(S), with 34 legislators, could get the fourth seat provided the Congress supports its candidate.
In the evening, the JD(S) legislature party, which met under the leadership of former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, unanimously urged its party supremo and former Prime Minister, HD Deve Gowda, to contest the Rajya Sabha polls.
Kumaraswamy later said his father was yet to make up his mind but maintained that Gowda’s “experience and vision would be an asset to the nation” if he decides to contest.
Asked if his party will extend support to Gowda, Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar said it will be decided by the Congress high command.
Gowda, 87, lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Tumkur to the BJP’s Gangasandra Siddappa Basavaraj. His grandson, Prajwal Gowda, won from the JD(S) bastion of Hassan, defeating A Manju of the BJP.
The Congress and the JD(S) are not in the best of terms since their 14-month coalition government collapsed on July 23, 2019, following the revolt by rebels from both parties.
Congress leader Kharge, popularly known as Solillada Saradara (a leader without defeat) faced his first electoral loss in his decades-long political life against BJP’s Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The 77-year-old Kharge got elected to the Karnataka assembly nine consecutive times and twice to the Lok Sabha.
An ex-union minister and a former leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Kharge is currently the party general secretary in-charge on Maharashtra.
Shivakumar and leader of the opposition in Karnataka assembly Siddaramiah welcomed the leadership’s decision to field Kharge.
Meanwhile, hectic lobbying was on in the BJP, which is expected to announce its candidates in a day or two in the state.
In Gujarat, the Congress suffered another jolt on Friday when its, legislator Brijesh Merja, resigned from the assembly. Two Congress legislators -- Akshay Patel and Jitu Chaudhary – already resigned from the assembly on Thursday.
With Merja’s resignation, the chances of the Congress winning the second Rajya Sabha seat have diminished as its tally in the 182-member House now stands at 65.
Five Congress legislators — Somabhai Patel, Praveen Maru, JV Kakadia, Mangal Gavit and Pradyuman Singh Jadeja — had resigned in March.
The total strength of the Gujarat assembly now stands at 172. The ruling BJP has 103 legislators, the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) two and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) one. There is one Independent legislator, Jignesh Mevani.
The Congress has fielded its senior leaders Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki, while the ruling BJP has named Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramilaben Bara and Narhari Amin as its candidates.
The Rajya Sabha elections, earlier scheduled to be held on March 26, were deferred due to the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent imposition of the nationwide lockdown from March 25.
