Adieu to kingmaker? Rebels hit JD(S) hard

BENGALURU: Once a party that sent a PM to New Delhi despite having just 16 MPs, Janata Dal (Secular)'s image of a ' kingmaker' suffered a setback on Saturday with eight of its MLAs defying the party whip and voting for a Congress candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka, which were dogged by allegations of development funds being offered to MLAs for votes.

JD(S) nominee, Mangaluru businessman B M Farook, suffered a humiliating defeat due to the cross-voting while all three Congress candidates, former Union ministers Oscar Fernandes and Jairam Ramesh and retired IPS officer K C Ramamurthy, sailed through the first round along with BJP candidate, Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Saturday's political drama was virtually a re-enactment of the voting pattern in legislative council polls on Friday, when a JD(S) candidate lost because five party legislators cross-voted.

JD(S) has been out of office in Karnataka for a decade, and this week's rebellion in the ranks has brought its long-standing internal problems to the surface.

The Congress win is being seen as a victory for CM Siddaramaiah as Ramamurthy was his choice while Ramesh and Fernandes were nominated by the high command.

From 9am, Siddaramaiah and home minister G Parame-shwara were holed up in the CMO distributing chits to Con-gress MLAs telling them whom to vote for. By 2.15pm, eight rebel JD(S) MLAs, led by B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan, H C Balakrishna and N Cheluvarayaswamy, walked in and voted for Ramamurthy.

The eight MLAs decided to vote against JD(S) saying state chief H D Kumaraswamy and national president H D Deve Gowda did not consult them while choosing a candidate, but discontent and disagreement has been simmering for a while.

The dissidence raises grave concerns for JD(S) as it has lost all three of its Bengaluru MLAs. MLAs from JD(S) strongholds of Mysuru, Ramnagara, Mandya and Srirangapatna have also crossed over.

Kumaraswamy said none of the rebels would be spared.