All 3 Congress candidates win Rajya Sabha polls in Karnataka, BJP gets one

BENGALURU: All the three candidates of the Congress who contested the Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka have won, while businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar retained his seat with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Congress candidate Syed Nasser Hussain received 42 votes while L Hanumanthaiah and GS Chandrashekar bagged 44 and 46 votes respectively.

With 50 candidates casting votes in his favour, businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar too won the elections comfortably. He represented the BJP which had 46 MLAs, including the support of BSR Congress and KJP legislators.


From the JD (S), only HD Revanna and Sara Mahesh voted, while the remaining 27 MLAs including former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy stayed away alleging that the returning officer was helping the Congress.

The JD (S) leaders were miffed after two Congress legislators were given a second chance to vote. Baburao Chinchansur and Kagodu Thimmappa, while casting the vote for the first time, had mistakenly voted for a candidate from another party. However, these votes were considered ‘invalid’ during the counting process.

While the JD (S) boycotted the election, Rudresh Gowda of the Congress did not vote as he was hospitalised due to sudden health complications.