Amid "resort politics" and cross-voting worry, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah exercised his voting rights for Rajya Sabha elections at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Leaders from BJP and JD(S), such as HD Kumaraswamy, R Ashoka, and Basavaraj Bommai displayed signs of confidence by showing victory gestures after casting their votes in support of BJP candidate Narayana Bandage.


For the four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka, five candidates including Ajay Maken (Congress), Syed Naseer Hussain (Congress), GC Chandrasekhar(Congress), Narayansa Bhandage (BJP) and Kupendra Reddy (JD(S)) are in the race.


On Rajya Sabha elections, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said, "They (BJP) have also fielded candidate to win the elections, but for the 5th candidate they required 45 votes, do they have 45 votes? How will they win without numbers? Though they know that they don't have numbers they fielded Kupendra Reddy and they tried to poach our MLAs, that's why an FIR has been lodged against him. I'm sure all our 3 candidates are going to win."






 


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With 134 MLAs, the Congress is confronting a formidable challenge from the BJP, which holds 66 MLAs, as well as the JD(S) with 19, and four representatives from other parties.














In the ongoing Rajya Sabha election in Karnataka, each candidate must secure 45 votes to emerge victorious. The voting which started at 9 AM will end at 4 PM after which counting will be held at 5 PM. The election is done using a ballot system.