Siddu ‘adamance’ costs Cong one seat

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT Bengaluru

The Congress Party has only itself to blame for the defeat of its second candidate, Mansoor Ali Khan in the election to four Rajya Sabha seats from the Legislative Assembly. A more liberal attitude by the grand old party of India vis-a-vis the Janata Dal (Secular) would have helped it send its second canddate Mansoor Ali Khan to the Rajya Sabha. But the stubborn attitude by Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah cost the party a seat.

If the Congress had accepted the olive branch offered by JD(S) Leader H.D.Kumaraswamy to bury the hatchet and enter into a poll pact, it would have prevented the ruling BJP from bagging a third seat too. Till Thursday night, Kumaraswamy waited for a reply from AICC General Secretary & Incharge of Karnataka Affairs Randeep Singh Surjewala but it never came.

Kupendra Reddy reportedly fell short by 14 votes while the Congress canddate Khan needed 23 more votes to win. Initially, the Congress did not have any plan to field a second candidate since it was aware of its strength in the Assembly. But Siddaramaiah reportedly assured the high command that a dozen JD(S) MLAs were ready to crossvote which was sufficient for the second Congress candidate to romp home along with second preferential votes.

Kumaraswamy on the other hand claimed claimed that he has 32 MLAs while the Congress would have around 23 first preferential votes after transferring votes to the first canddate of the party, Jairam Ramesh, and these votes could be transferred to JD(S) candidate Kupendra Reddy. In turn, the JD(S) would transfer all its second preferential votes to Mansoor Khan leaving the contest wide open. But Congress leaders and Siddaramaiah in particular took this offer with a pinch of salt.

The JD(S) leader had hinted many times that the Congress fielding a second candidate would be suicidal and would help the BJP get its third candidate elected to the Rajya Sabha. The joint strategy adopted by Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar thus