BM Farookh tastes defeat again as 28 JD(S) MLAs boycott polls, 7 rebels cross-vote

Bengaluru, Mar 23: Business magnet and JD(S) chief general secretary B M Farooq, who had tasted defeat in 2016 Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka thanks to the cross voting by party rebels, today got only two votes!

When JD(S) state president and Assembly floor leader H.D. Kumarswamy realized that his party’s candidate cannot win the polls, he decided to boycott the elections. By the time two of the 37 JD(S) MLAs had cast their vote.

A total of 28 JD(S) MLAs boycotted the elections after a heated argument with the Returning Officer who had allowed Congress MLA and former Minister Baburao Chinchansur and Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa to vote again with a second ballot paper.

Remaining seven suspended JD(S) MLAs violated the whip and cross voted to facilitate the victory of the third candidate fielded by the Congress.

Among the four other candidates in the fray, Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP got the highest number of votes (50). Congress candidates — G.C. Chandrashekar got 46 votes, L. Hanumanthaiah 44 and Naseer Hussain got 42 votes. Interestingly, among the Congress candidates, the third candidate, Chandrashekar, secured the highest votes.

Following heated arguments, voting was suspended for some time. Based on the JD(S) petition, the Election Commission of India replaced Mr. Murthy and appointed M.S. Kumaraswmay as the Retuning Officer. Mr. Kumarawamy is the Joint Secretary of the State Legislative Assembly.

Four votes were declared invalid. Votes cast in the second ballot paper by Mr. Chinchansur and Mr. Thimmappa and those of two other legislators were declared invalid as they marked the ballot paper wrongly.