H D Deve Gowda, Mallikarjun Kharge elected unanimously to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka

All four Rajya Sabha election candidates from Karnataka, including former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, were elected unanimously to the upper house of the Parliament on Friday.

Gowda of the JD(S), Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge, BJP’s Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti were declared as “duly elected” by the Karnataka Legislative Assembly Secretary MK Vishalakshi, the returning officer for the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha.

June 12 was the last date for candidates to withdraw their nominations and elections were scheduled on June 19 to fill up four vacancies. Since there were only four candidates in the fray, an election was not necessary.

Gowda, Kharge, Kadadi and Gasti will fill up the seats that will be vacated by D Kupendra Reddy of the JD(S), BJP’s Prabhakar Kore, Congress’ BK Hariprasad and MV Rajeev Gowda whose term ends June 25.

Kharge, Kadadi and Gasti are debutants in the Rajya Sabha, whereas Gowda was a member of the upper house of the Parliament for a brief period when he was the prime minister in 1996.