Bengaluru: Nominations of JD-S supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and two ruling BJP's candidate Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti were found valid for the June 19 Rajya Sabha biennial elections in Karnataka, a poll official said on Wednesday.
"State Legislative Assembly Secretary and returning officer M.K. Vishalakshi declared the nominations of all the four candidates valid after scrutiny," the Election Commission official told IANS.
Kharge, Kadadi and Gasti will get 44 votes each required to be elected while Gowda needs 10 more votes from the Congress to make up for the shortfall, as the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) has 34 legislators in the 225-member Assembly.
"Papers of Independent Sangamesh Chikkanargund, who filed on the last date of filing nominations (Tuesday), were rejected during the scrutiny, as he did not get letters of support from at least 10 legislators required to enter the poll fray," the official added.
Last date for withdrawal of candidates is on June 12. Voting and counting is on June 19.
The BJP has 117 legislators, including the Speaker and support of two Independents to vote for its 2 candidates.
With the term of the 4 four members -- the Congress' B.K. Hariprasad and Rajeev Gowda BJP's Prabhakar Kore and JD-S Kupendra Reddy ending on June 25, the Election Commission on June 1 notified the bypoll in the state for the Upper House of Parliament.
Deve Gowda, 87, lost in the May 2019 general elections from Tumkur to G.S. Basvaraj of the BJP.
Kharge, 77, a former Union Minister in the UPA government, lost in the May 2019 general elections from the Gulbarga reserved constituency to Umesh Yadav of the BJP.
Kharge was the party's leader in the Lok Sabha's previous term (2014-19).
It will be second time Gowda will enter the Rajya Sabha 24 years after he became its member as the Prime Minister of the United Front government in 1996-97, while it will be a debut in the upper house for Kharge after two terms in the Lok Sabha.
Kadadi, 50, hails from Gokak in the state's northwest Belagavi district. He is a strong leader of the politically dominant Lingayat community, which is the ruling party's vote bank and to which Yediyurappa too belongs to.
Gasti, 56, an advocate by profession, hails from the barber community and belongs to Raichur district in the state's northern region.
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