Ending all speculations, former prime minister HD Deve Gowda has decided to contest Rajya Sabha polls in Karnataka slated to be held on June 19.
The decision came at the request of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and other party legislators, informed his son and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy.
“Finally, @H_D_Devegowda responded to everyone’s hope and ambition. He will be the state’s top representative in the Rajya Sabha,” Kumaraswamy also said in a tweet.
The veteran JD(S) will file his papers for the contest on Tuesday, which is the last date for nominations in the state Vidhana Soudha (legislature building) in the city centre in the presence of JD(S) and state Congress leaders.
Admitting that it was not easy to persuade Gowda to enter the Upper House, Kumaraswamy said that his father had seen success and defeat in life. “He occupied top position in the country with the support of the people,” said Kumaraswamy in another tweet.
“We welcome Gowda agreeing to contest and assure him of our support to win the bypoll, as we will have surplus votes to spare after electing our leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who filed his nomination today (Monday),” Congress state unit spokesman Ravi Gowda was quoted as saying by IANS.
Deve Gowda has been keeping an eager Congress guessing if he would contest in the Rajya Sabha biennial elections in Karnataka and seek the support of Janata Dal-Secular.
With 68 legislators in the 225-member Assembly, the opposition Congress will have 24 surplus votes to spare after ensuring the victory of its senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is contesting for one of the 4 seats from the state and requires 44 votes to win.
It will be second time Gowda will enter the Rajya Sabha, 24 years after he was its member as the prime minster from June 1996 to April 1997 of the United Front government of secular and regional parties from across the country.
Gowda will need only 10 votes to win in the event of a contest for the fourth seat from the southern state.
Gowda will replace our member Kupendra Reddy whose 60-year term in the Upper House ends on June 25. He has not sought re-nomination.
Deve Gowda, 87, had lost in the May 2019 general elections from Tumkur to GS Basvaraj of the BJP, though his grandson Prajwal Gowda won from the JD-S bastion Hassan, defeating A Manju of the BJP.
Kharge and Hariprasad lost in the May 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Gulabarga (reserved) and Bangalore South seats to the BJP’s Umesh Yadav and Tejasvi Surya.
The ruling BJP, which has 116 legislators and support of 2 independents, will be able to send two of its candidates to the Rajya Sabha and still have 30 surplus votes after using 88 votes for its two contestants.
Of the 12 Rayja Sabha seats from the southern state, the BJP has three members – Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, industrialist Rajeev Chandrashekhar and noted educationist KC Ramamurthy, who defected from the Congress and got re-elected unopposed on December 5, 2019 as a BJP nominee, as his term is till June 2022.
The Congress has 5 members in the Upper House from the state – Oscar Fernandes, Jairam Ramesh, Syed Naseer Hussain, L Hanumanthaiah and GC Chandrashekar.
By fielding Deve Gowda for the fourth seat, the Congress and JD(S), who are secular allies and had post-poll and pre-poll alliances for the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections in May 2019 and May 2018, have queered the pitch and denied the BJP from winning a third seat from the state.
With the term of the 4 members, including 2 from the Congress and one each from the BJP and JD(S) ending on June 25, the Election Commission on June 1 notified the bypoll in the state on June 19 and vote count on the same evening.
(With inputs from IANS)