Bengaluru:

Former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said a case has been registered against Janata Dal (Secular) leader D Kupendra Reddy, who is contesting the Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka, and his associates at the Vidhana Soudha police station in Bengaluru.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also confirmed that an FIR has been registered for “threatening” Congress MLAs in connection with the Rajya Sabha elections.

“The Congress leaders not only repeatedly lured and threatened the MLAs but also filed an FIR against Kupendra Reddy and his associates,” Mr Kumaraswamy told reporters here.

The JDS leader said the complaining MLA did not say that he was lured, but some other MLAs were “approached”.

“Karnataka Sarvodaya Paksha’s Melukote MLA Darshan Puttannaiah had also said that it was true that his vote was sought, but no one had lured him,” the JDS state chief claimed.

Mr Kumaraswamy also said that the BJP and JDS have decided that the additional BJP votes after the votes of 19 JDS MLAs and the preferential votes before that will go to Kupendra Reddy.

Mr Siddaramaiah criticized the Janata Dal (Secular) for allegedly trying to woo Congress MLAs to get its candidate Kupendra Reddy elected.

“JDS needs 45 votes (for its candidate) to win. Do they have that many votes? Even though they do not have enough votes, they still fielded a candidate and are luring our MLAs. Do they have Have discretion?” the chief minister asked in a post on social media platform X.

“An FIR has been lodged regarding the threat to us. Our three candidates will win. There is no doubt about it,” Mr Siddaramaiah asserted. He did not say against whom the FIR was lodged and where it was lodged.

Speaking to reporters at Vidhan Soudha here, the Chief Minister criticized the smaller partner in the opposition alliance and said, “When JDS does not have it. ‘Soul’ (soul), how could she ‘soul witness’ (Discretion)? They call themselves Janata Dal (Secular) but with whom did they join?”

His reference was towards JDS forming an alliance with BJP.

The Chief Minister did not rule out the possibility of getting votes from the rival camp and said his government’s good work could lead to votes from the other party.

On JD(S)’s allegations that Congress had approached his party’s MLAs, Mr Siddaramaiah said when the Congress had sufficient number of MLAs, there was no need to woo opposition MLAs.

Voting is going on for four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka. The ruling Congress has fielded former Union minister and Congress treasurer Ajay Maken and sitting Rajya Sabha members GC Chandrashekhar and Syed Naseer Hussain.

The BJP has fielded Narayanasa Bhandage and JD(S) leader Kupendra Reddy as NDA candidates.

In the 223-member House, Congress has 133 MLAs, excluding the Speaker, while BJP and JD(S) have 66 and 19 MLAs respectively. The number of others is four. A Congress MLA died on Sunday.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)