Who will get the `kick’: Mallya or Maruti?
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, Jun 9: With five candidates in the fray for the four Rajya Sabha seats from the Karnataka Assembly in the elections scheduled to be held on June 17 at the end of scrutiny of all the nominations, the big question in political circles is who will win the fourth seat – whether it is JD(S) backed liquor baron Vijay Mallya of UB Group or Congress party’s second candidate T V Maruti, a businessman.
Unless one of the two candidates – Mallya or Maruti – decide to withdraw from the contest by June 10, the last date for withdrawal of nominations, and avoid the necessity of going through the electoral exercise, one of the candidate will be kicked out of the race and the other will get a kick to enter Rajya Sabha.
However, the Congress party has ruled out withdrawal of its second candidate even if means facing certain defeat in the absence of support from JD(S) or BJP’s excess votes.
UB Group chairman, who entered the race at the last minute with the support of JD(S) to try his luck for a second term in the Rajya Sabha, is unlikely to withdraw because he is hopeful of getting some surplus votes from BJP besides those from JD(S).
So, if both Mallya and Maruti remain in the race and an election becomes invevitable, it appears likely that Maruti might be kicked out while the liquor baron will be kicked up all the way to Delhi for an unexpected second term because of the failure of the Congress and JD(S) to stick to their original agreement on seat sharing in the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council polls.
Of course, the other three candidates – former BJP national president Venkaiah Naidu and BJP’s former Shimoga Lok Sabha member Ayanur Manjunath as well as former Union Minister and AICC Secretary Oscar Fernandes are assured of effortless win in view of the fact that both the BJP and Congress can comfortably send their three candidates to Rajya Sabha. This, however, presupposes that there will not be any cross-voting against the three official candidates from both the parties due to internal conflicts or other ``considerations” as both Mallya and Maruti can be expected to be generous with their purse.
Fernandes, who spoke to the media in Bangalore on Tuesday, declared that the Congress party would not withdraw its second candidate under any circumstances.
``If JD(S) joins hands with BJP in defeating its (Congress) candidate and enables the other independent to win with BJP support, it will expose the secular credentials of the JD(S),” he said pointing out that the ``people will know that the S in JD(S) does not stand for secular.”
Karnataka Legislative Assembly Secretary S B Patil, who is the designated returning officer for the Rajya Sabha polls, said the nominations of all five party candidates – Naidu, Manjunath (both BJP), Fernandes, Maruti (Congress) and JD(S) sponsored Mallya --- were found to be valid during scrutiny.
But two other nominations from independents were rejected as there were no proposers when it is mandatory to have at least 10 MLAs to propose a candidate’s nomination.
The two independents, who had filed their nomination papers without any proposers, are Narayana Gowda of Malur in Kolar district and Padmaraja of Mettur in Tamil Nadu.