In the Rajya Sabha elections held on Tuesday in Karnataka, three candidates from the ruling Congress party—Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain, and G C Chandrasekhar—along with one candidate from the BJP, Narayana Bandage, emerged victorious. While Maken, Hussain, and Chandrasekhar secured 47, 46, and 46 votes respectively, Narayana Bandage clinched the election with 47 votes. The fiercely contested elections saw five candidates vying for the four seats, with JD(S) contestant D Kupendra Reddy losing with 36 votes.
The biennial elections were necessitated as 50 members were set to complete their term on April 2, and six would retire on April 3. Cross-voting marred the elections, with BJP MLA S T Somashekar voting for Congress's Maken, and another BJP MLA, A Shivaram Hebbar, abstaining.
To secure a Rajya Sabha seat in Karnataka, candidates needed at least 45 votes from the state's 224 MLAs. The Congress-controlled state saw a smooth voting process, lasting from 9 am to 4 pm. The victory was lauded by Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar, who expressed gratitude to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Mallikarjun Kharge.
The Rajya Sabha polls took place across various states, including Uttar Pradesh (10), Maharashtra (6), Bihar (6), West Bengal (5), Madhya Pradesh (5), Gujarat (4), Karnataka (4), Andhra Pradesh (3), Telangana (3), Rajasthan (3), Odisha (3), Uttarakhand (1), Chhattisgarh (1), Haryana (1), and Himachal Pradesh (1).