Hubballi: JD (S) leader H. D. Kumaraswamy said on Saturday June 4 that it is up to Congress whether to support the JD (S) candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections or send a BJP member to the Upper House. He said that Congress has 30 additional votes, BJP 32, and JD (S) 32.
If the second Congress candidate receives fewer first-preference votes than the JD (S) and BJP, he will be eliminated from the first round. “The fourth seat would thereafter be contested by the BJP and the JD (S). We are confident of winning it,” he said.
“Siddaramaiah is said to have been planning to hit two birds with one stone by fielding a second candidate. The RS poll results would prove that Siddaramaiah had thrown a stone over his head. Poll will decide who the BJP’s B-team is,” said Kumaraswamy.
He claimed that no Congress leader had spoken to him about the Rajya Sabha polls save party Karnataka In-Charge Randeep Singh Surjewala and that the dynamics of voting in the polls had been explained to him. On Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge’s role, he said JDS did not approach him, but party candidate Kupendra Reddy did, through his old connections with Congress, he remarked.
Ruling out any cross-voting by JD (S) MLAs, he said the leadership has resolved all issues. On BJP national general secretary and Karnataka In-Charge Arun Singh’s statement that JD (S) is a sinking ship, he said, “BJP itself is a sinking ship in the state. People are fed up with its governance here.”