Rajya Sabha polls: JD(S) MLA votes for Cong, another one ignores party whip

The JD(S) leadership on Friday claimed at least two disgruntled MLAs did not vote in favour of its candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls for four seats from Karnataka, defying the party's diktat, with one of its legislators admitting he did so since he "loved" voting for the Congress nominee.

The regional party's Kolar MLA K Srinivas Gowda cast his vote for the Congress candidate, while Gubbi MLA S R Srinivas put a blank ballot paper into the box, which will be counted as invalid, JD(S) legislature party leader H D Kumaraswamy said, fuming at his colleagues.

While Gowda accepted he voted for the Congress candidate, Srinivas rejected Kumaraswamy's claim and insisted he voted for his party's pick.

Gowda, who has maintained distance from JD(S) and was seen hobnobbing with Congress for some time now, after casting his vote said, "I voted for Congress because I love it....my future politics is with Congress. I was earlier a Minister from Congress."
Revanna refuted the charge, saying "I have not shown it to Shivakumar, I have shown it to our senior MLA Puttaraju."