Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and three others elected unanimously to the Parliament upper house Rajya Sabha on Friday. Karnataka has four vacant seats to be filled in Rajya Sabha; Friday is the last date to withdrawn the nominations which were filed to contest in the RS polls.

But the ruling party BJP field two candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls as per the strength of their party members in the Karnataka Assembly. As well, the Congress field one candidate and the another field by JD (S) with the support of Congress. No other candidate has filed any nominations.

The BJP high command suggested two names to the State BJP to field the Rajya Sabha members. They are Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti, Congress field the veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge and the JD (S) field H.D. Deve Gowda as their party nominees. The Election authorities announced the four candidates are elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha.

The BJP, with 117 members in the assembly, including the speaker, was in a position to ensure easy victory in two out of four seats, while Congress with 68 MLAs in one. The JDS, which has 34 seats in the assembly, was not in a position to win a seat in Rajya Sabha on its own, but had Congress’s support with its surplus votes. A minimum of 45 votes were required for a candidate to win.

Earlier, the BJP’s central leadership had rejected candidates suggested by the state unit, going with choices made by Delhi. The state unit had suggested names including Prabhakar Kore, Ramesh Katti and Prakash Shetty. Yediyurappa told journalists he was pleased with the decision. He said, “The BJP central leadership, by giving the seat to ordinary party workers, has given a gift. I thank them. Perhaps the BJP is the only party which would take such a decision of giving this change to ordinary members.”

“After my defeat in the Lok Sabha, I took a decision not to contest any more elections, Deve Gowda said. The circumstances today – all the legislators of both the houses of my party took a unanimous decision that I must go to the Rajya Sabha. I had not accepted. But I agreed when Madam Sonia Gandhi said we were only waiting for your decision. That is why we only sent Kharge’s name” he added.