BJP to back H D Deve Gowda's re-election to Rajya Sabha with future polls in mind?

Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is likely to get re-elected to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

Deve Gowda from the JD(S), Mallikarjun Kharge of Congress, Iranna Kadadi and K Narayan from the BJP are the four Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka who will complete their terms in June. 

As these four seats have to be elected by members of the state Assembly (MLAs), the BJP, which has two seats, will now lose one automatically and has the opportunity to elect only one person considering its representation in the state. 

According to state BJP sources, its leaders are not fully onboard with the idea of re-electing Gowda. However, the saffron party’s leadership is said to be favouring the former prime minister keeping in mind future polls. “Giving up the Rajya Sabha seat will help the BJP during seat negotiations with their alliance partner in future,” sources in the party said.

In the recent core committee meeting of the state BJP, a majority of leaders expressed displeasure over the idea of electing Gowda. Some senior leaders even proposed former chief minister Sadananda Gowda’s name. “As the decision will ultimately be taken by the high command, we have no option but to vote for the candidate finalised by the party,” said a senior BJP legislator.

Another leader explained that supporting Deve Gowda now will help the BJP win the confidence of the Vokkaliga community since one of the largest communities of Karnataka still accepts him as its leader. 

Sources from the JD(S) informed that discussions are on with the BJP high command at New Delhi. “One round of discussions has already been held with a few of the national leaders and they are also obliged to re-elect Deve Gowda considering his experience,” a JD(S) leader stated.

The term of the four Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka will end on June 25. Each candidate needs 45 to 46 votes to win and currently, in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, Congress has 136 seats, BJP 63 and JD(S) 18. Apart from these, Sarvodaya Paksha has one member and there are three expelled BJP members while two seats are vacant. For a candidate to win directly he/she needs around 45 to 46 votes and as per this calculation, the governing Congress can easily win three seats. BJP and JD(S) have only one seat left for them. The BJP and JD(S) alliance together has 81 votes and they will fall short of nine votes for the second seat.

Cross voting is difficult in this election as members have to show their ballot paper to the party’s election agent. 

If both Kharge and Gowda are re-elected from Karnataka to the Rajya Sabha, then two senior and experienced leaders will be the voices of the state. Kharge is 83 years old and Gowda is 93.