Rajeev Chandrasekhar pips Ananthamurthy to enters RS from Karnataka

Bangalore, Mar 28 (UNI) In a keenly contested biennial election to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, K Rahman Khan (Congress), K B Shanappa (BJP), M Rajasekhara Murthy (JD-S) and industrialist Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Ind) made it to the Upper House today.

While it was a cakewalk for Mr Khan, Mr Shanappa and Mr Murthy owing to their parties' strength in the Assembly, there was a keen fight for the fourth seat among three independent candidates, including eminent litterateur U R Ananthamurthy. However, it was Mr Chandrasekhar who eventually won the election, with the maximum number of votes polled -- 53.

Dr Ananthamurthy had to be content with just 24 votes.

Announcing the election results to waiting newspersons here, Returning Officer S B Patil said that while Mr Khan secured 49 votes, Mr Shanappa got 47 votes and Mr Murthy 50 votes. Putting up a brave face, Dr Ananthamurthy said that despite losing the elections, he considered it a victory as he had exposed the role of money power involved in the polls.

The election was necessitated by the retirement of Messrs Khan, K B Krishnamurthy and Bimba Raikar (all Congress) and Mr Murthy, a former Union Minister.

Coalition partners JD(S) and BJP backed Mr Chandrasekhar, while the Siddaramaiah camp and some independents threw their weight behind Dr Ananthamurthy. Another industrialist Mike Mallappa was also in the fray, ensuring a three-cornered contest for the fourth seat.

The JD(S), BJP and the Congress had issued whips to their Legislators to vote for the respective's party's official candidate.

After ensuring the victory of their party candidates, the BJP and JD(S) had asked their MLAs to vote for Mr Chandrasekhar, the Chairman and CEO of Jupiter Capital.

However, former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who despite parting ways with the JD(S) leadership technically remained a JD(S) member in the House, and two others -- Dr Mahadevappa and B R Patil -- voted for Dr Ananthamurthy, as they had declared earlier. They maintained that they had not received the party whip.

UNI