Bangalore: Rehman Khan, Sedam, Ramakrishna, Rajiv Elected Unopposed to RS
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Mar 22: With the third candidate belonging to ruling BJP, B J Puttaswamy, a loyalist of former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, withdrawing from contest and the nomination papers of all the other non-party backed independents being rejected, the three official candidates of BJP and Congress and the independent candidate backed by JD(S) were declared unopposed.
Rahman Khan, Rajiv Chandrashekar, Ramakrishna, Basavaraja Sedam
The four elected Rajya Sabha members are: Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha K Rehman Khan, former State BJP President Basavaraj Patil Sedam and retired IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre R Ramakrishna, who is also the BJP Central Election Cell convenor, and sitting independent member Rajiv Chandrashekar, who is the owner of Suvarna Kannada TV channel.
The designated Returning Officer P Omprakash, who is also the State Legislative Assembly Secretary, declared the election of the four unopposed at the end of the deadline for withdrawal of nomination papers on Thursday.
Omprakash said the four remaining contestants in the fray were declared elected unopposed as there were no other independents in the fray for holding the election as scheduled on March 30 for the four vacant seats in the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.
It may be recalled that five persons, including B J Puttaswamy, who was the Political Secretary to Yeddyurappa and continued in the post even after D V Sadananda Gowda was chosen as the successor, had filed their nomination papers and the four nomination papers had been rejected during scrutiny for not fulfilling the requirements.
Puttaswamy had withdrawn his nomination papers after BJP MLA and former minister Aravind Limbavali had submitted a sworn affidavit affirming that he had withdrawn his signature after learning that the former was not the official candidate of the ruling party.
The terms of four Rajya Sabha members - actor Hema Malini and K B Shanappa of the BJP, Rehman Khan and Rajiv Chandrasekhar, representing the State, comes to close on April 2, 2012.