Congress, JD(S) woo Independent MLAs

BENGALURU: Resort politics and inducements cannot be ruled out in elections of four seats to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka with the Congress and JD(S) battling to get its nominees elected.
With Independent MLAs playing a decisive role in the victory of either the Congress third candidate, retired IPS officer K C Ramamurthy and the JD(S) sole, B M Farook, businessman from Mangaluru, both parties are engaged in wooing these legislators.The JD(S) got 10 of the total 16 independents to propose the candidature of Farook, who will be filing his nomination papers on Monday. The last date for filing is May 31 and elections are on June 4.
Alongside, chief minister Siddaramaiah and energy minister D K Shivakumar held day long discussions with the independents on Saturday. The independents who were signatories to Faoork’s candidature attended Shivakumar‘s meeting held in his house where JD(S) MLA N Cheluvaraswamy and Ramamurthy were also present. The Congress needs 12 votes to get Ramamurthy elected, while the JD(S) was initially short of five votes for Farook.
However, with JD(S) MLA B Z A Zameer Ahmed Khan announcing his support for the Congress third candidate and claiming that four more party MLAs will join him, the JD(S) number has come down to 35. The 10 Independents who have signed for Farook are S Thippeswamy, B R Patil, Sambhaji Lakshman Patil, Ashok Kheny, P, Rajeev, Guru Patil, Satish K Sail, Mankala Subba Vaidya, Aravind Chandrakant Patil and B Nagendra. All have signed on May 27.
All these Independents besides Varthuir Prakash met Shivakumar. After the meeting Rajeev told reporters that they had only signed for Farook but he along with 12 others had decided to vote for the Congress candidate.
Speaking to Stoi, JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy charged Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar with calling the Independents earlier this week and intimidating them of expediting any police cases against them or delaying works in their constituencies. "Most of them are new comers and they approached me saying that they wanted to support our party candidature, but were scared," he added.
Reacting to the allegations Shivakumar said: "The Independent MLAs are not naive. Kumaraswamy is known for making such allegations. None of these MLAs have any police cases and they approachedour government for help in their constituencies," he maintained.
According to sources the independents' signing does not mean that their support has been pledged to the JD(S). "Since no whip can be issued in these elections and more so independents cannot be bonded by any rules. Besides, independents generally don’t wish to antagonize the ruling party with assembly polls two years away as patronage to their constituencies will be affected,’’ they said.
The Congress released its list of Rajya Sabha candidates for two seats Oscar Fernandes with Jairam Ramesh and asked the state party unit to announce the third candidate Ramamurthy.
Council Seats: State youth Congress president Rizwan Arshad has been given the ticket for the legislative council seat from the assembly. The Congress is contesting four of the seven seats going to polls on June 10.
Arshad had been denied ticket from Hebbal twice--- in 2013 assembly polls and the bypoll held early this year. This is his second term as president of youth Congress. The other three candidates are Allum Veerabhadrappa, R B Thimmapur and Veena Achaiah. The BJP is contesting one and the JD(S) one each and has sought the BJP’s support to field one more.