BSY's gambit pays off, close aide wins

 The BJP’s strategy of securing the support of nine Independents MLAs and those from smaller parties for its second candidate for the Legislative Council elections, Lehar Singh paid off on Friday.

According to BJP sources, the strategy was the brainchild of state party president B S Yeddyurappa who wanted his close associate Singh to win at any cost.

Senior BJP leader Jagadish Shettar, after the results were announced, claimed that the unity in the party ensured the victory. However, he did not explain as to how it managed to win the second seat despite having a shortage of 15 votes.

Sources said the BJP’s tacit understanding with the Congress in handling the Independent MLAs and smaller parties helped in winning the second. The deal struck was that Congress will not interfere in the BJP’s ploy to secure votes for its second candidate in the Council polls. At the same time, the BJP will not interfere in Congress’ strategy in securing votes for its third candidate K C Ramamurthy in the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled to be held on Saturday. Congress leader D K Shivakumar and Yeddyurappa were in constant touch during the last few days, the sources said.

As Singh was short of 15 votes to get a minimum of 29 votes to get elected, the BJP transferred to him the second preference votes allotted to its first candidate V Somanna. Moreover, it had approached the Independents. Two MLAs from the BSR Congress - T H Suresh Babu and S Thippeswamy and KJP MLA Guru Patil Shirval too extended helping hand to the BJP.  It had also tapped K Puttanaiah of Sarvodaya Karnataka Party.  In all, as many as 14 non-BJP MLAs voted for Singh, it is said.

The Congress also got more votes than the number of MLAs in its fold. The four candidates fielded by the Congress together got 130 votes, five more than its total number of MLAs (125). Speculation is that the additional votes could be those of rebel JD(S) MLAs.

During the counting of votes, it was declared that two votes were invalid. While one invalid vote was marked for the Congress candidate Rizwan Arshad, the other was marked for JD(S) candidate K V Narayanaswamy.

For the first time, “None of the Above” (NOTA) option was available on the ballot papers for the Council polls. One voter marked NOTA as his/her second preference vote, counting agents said.