Bengaluru: The polls to four Rajya Sabha (RS) seats in the State on Tuesday threw up no miracles, with the ruling Congress winning 3 seats, while the Opposition BJP one seat as expected.

Congress candidates Ajay Maken, a former Union Minister (47 votes), Nasir Hussain (47 votes) & G.C. Chandrashekar (45 votes) and BJP Candidate Narayansa Bhandage (47 votes), were declared winners from the State.

The BJP-JD(S) combine, which had put up Kupendra Reddy as the candidate for the fourth seat with the hope of upsetting the ruling Congress party’s applecart, lost the polls by managing to secure only 36 votes. Every candidate was required to get 45 votes in order to be declared winner.

BJP’s Narayansa Bhandage is entering the Rajya Sabha for the first time, while the three victorious Congress candidates are sitting MPs of the Upper House.

The highlight of Tuesday’s polls was that BJP MLA S.T. Somashekar cross voted in favour of a Congress candidate, while another BJP MLA Shivaram Hebbar, abstained for voting, thus lending more credibility to speculations that the two Legislators would soon quit the BJP and join the Congress. Independent MLAs, Gali Janardhan Reddy, Darshan Puttannaiah, Latha Mallikarjun and Puttaswamygowda, also voted for the ruling Congress candidates, much on expected lines.

A total of 222 out of the 223 MLAs of the Karnataka Assembly voted in the polls which was held from 9 am to 4 pm at Vidhana Soudha, following which the counting of votes was taken up.

Shivaram Hebbar of the BJP was the lone MLA who abstained from voting. One seat in the Assembly has lied vacant following the death of Congress MLA from Surpur, Raja Venkatappa Nayaka, who passed away on Sunday last, just two days before the polls. Meanwhile, the Opposition BJP, upset over the actions of its MLAs S.T. Somashekar and Shivaram Hebbar, is likely to petition the Assembly Speaker soon seeking disqualification of the two party MLAs.