Elections to four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka including that of former liquor baron Vijay Mallya is expected to take place in June-July.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) bid to increase its Rajya Sabha tally may however receive a blow as it may be able to bag only one seat out of the four as it doesn’t have the requisite numbers to win more seats. Congress which has one seat from the state is expected to gain one more.
Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu of BJP and Oscar Fernandes of Congress are likely to be re-nominated to the polls. The battle for the fourth seat which usually goes to a businessman will be keenly watched.
A candidate in Karnataka needs 45 first preference votes of MLAs to get elected. Congress, having a total strength of 123 in the Assembly, can easily bag two seats and while Opposition BJP can get one.
There are a total of 13 Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka including Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Vijay Mallya who have been elected as independent members. There are four Congress members and six BJP members in the Upper House.
Mallya was elected to the Rajya Sabha on consecutive terms. During the first term, the issue of him being an NRI had come up. But it was not given any consideration and Mallya got elected without much of a protest from MLAs. During the second term, Mallya received first few preference votes from major parties which raised several eyebrows in the political circles.
Congress has a better chance to bag even the fourth seat though it may have to lean on another party to make sure that its candidate wins the seat. Sources in Congress say that former finance minister P Chidambaram is one of the candidates being considered for the seat though the party might come under some criticism as he hails from Tamil Nadu which has been at loggerheads with Karnataka on the Cauvery River water sharing issue.
At the moment, hectic consultations are going on among parties for the fourth seat. Closer to the date of elections, it will become clear who will emerge as the candidate though Congress and the BJP will have to strike an understanding with the H D Deve Gowda-led JD(S) to bag the seat.
During the last two decades, outsiders like former movie star, Hema Malini and industrialist M A M Ramaswamy have got elected from Karnataka.