Five candidates remain in fray for four RS seats in Karnataka

Five candidates are in the fray for the March 23 biennial election to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka that will fall vacant early next month following the retirement of members.

Today was the last day for the candidates to withdraw their candidature.

"No one has withdrawn. All the five candidates are in the fray," Assembly Secretary S Murthy, who is also the returning officer, told PTI.

Three ruling Congress candidates and one each from BJP and JDS filed their nominations on March 12, the last day forfiling nominations.

The Congress has fielded Dr L Hanumanthaiah, Dr Syed Naseer Hussain and G C Chandrasekhar.

BJP has nominated Rajeev Chandrashekar, who was an independent Rajya Sabha member and joined the party on Monday, and the JDS, B M Farooq.

Farooq, who had filed his nomination papers on March 9, filed another set of nomination papers on March 12.

Polling will be held on March 23 and the results are expected to be declared the same evening.

With their current strength in the assembly, two candidates of the Congress and one from BJP can get elected comfortably. However, the fight will be between the third candidate of the Congress and JDS' Farooq.

Here too the arithmetic is likely to favour Congress, with theparty hoping for support from seven rebel JDS MLAs, who are expected to join it after the Rajya Sabha polls.

It also expects support of MLAs from smaller parties- BR Patil (KJP), B Nagendra (independent) and Ashok Kheny (KMP), who have recently joined the Congress.

According to reports, Congress' decision to field its third candidate came as a blow to JDS that had hoped itwould support its candidate, keeping in mind the larger picture of thepost poll scenario after the assembly polls.

In the 224-member assembly, each candidate will require 44 votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat.

At present the party wise strength in the assembly isCongress-122, BJP-43, JDS-37, BSR Congress-3, KJP-2, KMP-1, independents-8, Speaker-1, nominated-1, vacant-7.

Farooq had earlier too contested as JDS candidate duringthe biennial elections to fill four Rajya Sabha seats fromKarnataka in June 2016. However, he lost as eight MLAs from the party voted in support of the congress candidate.

Assembly polls are expected to be held in April/May.