All three Congress RS candidates will win: Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru, Feb 27 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that all three Congress candidates will win the Rajya Sabha election.

“AICC Treasurer Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain, and G.C. Chandrashekhar will win easily in the elections,” the Chief Minister said.

He said that all the Congress legislators have loyally voted for the party candidates.

“The Congress candidates will emerge victorious. As JD (S) fielded the fifth candidate, we have to get together and cast our votes. They had indulged in luring and threatening our legislators,” the Chief Minister said.

Reacting to the JD (S) leaders’ call for Congress MLAs to cast votes as per the call of conscience, the Chief Minister asked where is the conscience? “They have named their party as Janata Dal Secular and joined with BJP,” the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said.

He said that Congress may also get votes from MLAs who have good opinion about the Karnataka government.

On horse trading allegations, the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said: “When we have sufficient votes, what is the need to lure other party MLAs? We are sure of getting votes of independent MLAs. There is no necessity to lure other MLAs.”

He said that BJP and JD (S) have been indulging in threatening and luring the MLAs. “Let them keep their MLAs intact. Cross voting is only possible from BJP party leaders,” the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said.