With numbers in her favour, Hema Malini appears set to be elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka tomorrow. The BJP candidate is facing litterateur K Marulasiddappa, who is contesting as an independent backed by opposition Congress and JD(S), as the stage is set for the byelections to the Upper House.
Ruling BJP has a strength of 107, including Speaker K G Bopaiah and Varthur Prakash, an independent, as against 98 by the combined opposition (Congress - 71, JDS -27) in the 206-member truncated House.
The single nominated member can’t vote in Rajya Sabha election while 19 seats are vacant. BJP and Congress have issued whips to their MLAs to cast their first preferential vote to Hema Malini and Marulasiddappa respectively while JD(S) is slated to do so in the morning.
If all 205 members cast their votes, the winning candidate would require to poll 104. The possibility of cross-voting has been ruled out because the members would have to show their ballot to their party agent before putting them in the boxes. So, the outcome of the bypoll seems to be a foregone conclusion if one were to go by the numbers. The winner’s term would end on April 2 next year. Marulasiddappa, a former Chairman of Karnataka Nataka Academy, has sought to invoke the Kannadiga self-pride and positioned his candidature as one to protect the interests of the state and uphold the honour and dignity of Kannada.
Several eminent writers and artistes of Karnataka have thrown their weight behined Marulasiddappa, appealing to MLAs to vote for him cutting across party lines.
The opposition camp tried to project Hema Malini as an “outsider” but that campaign seems to have failed to cut much ice among the electorate. The veteran actress has sought to shrug off her “outsider tag”.
“I do not understand why some people are treating me as an outsider. As an artiste, I belong to everybody”, Hema Malini told reporters here last evening. She said she had campaigned for party candidates in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Karnataka. “It’s not a new place for me. I will strive for the welfare of the people and development of the state”, she said. The Bollywood blockbuster “Sholay” in which she played the part of a tough village damsel,’Basanti’ opposite Dharmendra, was shot in the hillocks of Ramanagara, some 60 km from here.
