From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Feb 26: With the loss of one vote due to the demise of Surpur Congress MLA Raja Venkatappa Naik, the ruling Congress party is seeking to make up the loss by enlisting the help of Ballari mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, who is heading the Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha, in the Rajya Sabha elections for the four seats from the State Assembly scheduled to be held on Tuesday.

Minister Shivaraj Thangadagi, who is close to Reddy, accompanied the mining baron to meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar at the Chief Minister’s official residence Cauvery on Monday.

However, neither the Congress party nor Reddy disclosed any details of the meeting and described the meeting as ‘courtesy call’.

The opposition BJP-JDS combine has fielded a fifth candidate in real estate bigwig Kupendra Reddy to fish in troubled waters in trying to ‘’lure’’ disgruntled Congress MLAs as both BJP and JDS have excess votes but are not in a position to ensure the victory of the fifth candidate.

Kupendra Reddy, a former Rajya Sabha member from JDS, can hope to win only if there is cross-voting from the ruling Congress party.

It may be recalled that JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy has already met Janaradhana Reddy and has requested his support for the BJP-JDS combine’s fifth candidate.

Janardhana Reddy, however, has remained tight-lipped refusing to divulge details of his preference.

Meanwhile, Janardhana Reddy has appointed Yogendra Vikram as his Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha agent for Tuesday’s Rajya Sabha polling.

As if to indicate that Janardhana Reddy’s support to the Congress party in the elections, the appointment letter of Yogendra Vikram was submitted to Assembly Secretary M K Vishalakshi on Monday when both Shivakumar, who is also the KPCC President, and Minister Shivaraj Thangadagi accompanied.