BJP's K C Ramamurthy likely to be elected unopposed to RS

Bengaluru: With the Congress and JD(S) not fielding candidates, BJP’s KC Ramamurthy is most likely to be elected unopposed to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Karnataka going for by-polls, official sources said on Monday.

Monday was the last date to file nominations for the by-poll to fill the vacancy caused due to Ramamurthy’s resignation as a member of Rajya Sabha from the Congress party.

While scrutiny will take place on Tuesday, the last date for withdrawal of candidature is December 5.

Polling is scheduled for December 12 (if necessary).

M K Vishalakshi, secretary of the Karnataka assembly and the returning officer for the Rajya Sabha election, said other than Ramamurthy, two persons have filed their nominations as independents.

“Scrutiny of nominations will take place tomorrow morning, other than (Ramamurthy) no other candidate has filed nomination from a political party.. the two candidates- Venkateshwar Maha Swamiji and K Padmarajan-don’t have any proposers,” she said.

Sources said, as the other two nominations do not have proposers, they are likely to get rejected during scrutiny, paving the way for Ramamurthy’s election without any voting.

Ramamurthy, who represented the Congress in the Upper House and whose term was up to June 2022, tendered his resignation as a member on October 16 to the House Chairman and Vice-President M Venkaiah Nadu, who accepted it.

The former IPS officer had also resigned from the Congress and subsequently joined the BJP.

FollowingRamamurthy’s resignation, the Congress in Karnataka had alleged that BJP has made it an “industry” to lure everyone to the party, and people were joining it out of “fear” or for the sake of “allurements.”

However, stating that he resigned as Rajya Sabha member and from the Congress as he wanted his experience to be “used properly in the path of progress and development”, Ramamurthy had rubbished claims that he quit the party, under pressure or fearing Income Tax raids.