Mallya takes another shot at politics

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">bangalore: the stage has been set for elections to the four rajya sabha seats from karnataka, with liquor baron vijay mallya filing his nomination papers as an independent along with three congress and one bjp candidate here on thursday. mallya''s candidature is supported by two suspended bjp mlas along with a host of independents and janata dal(u) members.although he is a candidate of the janata parivar, interestingly there was no proposer from the jd(s) which has four mlas. immediately after the procedure, two suspended bjp members — a. manju (arkalgud) and n.l. bharathi shankar (t. narsipura) — were expelled for anti-party activities. a statement from the party said they were expelled for violating the party norms by supporting an independent candidate. the congress candidates — m.v. rajashekharan, b. janardhana poojary and prema cariappa — were accompanied by kpcc president allum veerabhadrappa and party workers. bjp''s nominee d.k. taradevi siddarth, who filed nomination papers on march 11 filed another set on thursday. the process of filing the nomination papers by the five candidates was over by 1.30 pm though there was time till 3 pm. reason being rahukala was to commence at 1.30 pm and mallya, who was the last to file, walked in at 1.20 pm even as the congress was at the end of completing the formalities. after filing, mallya told reporters his "friends" persuaded him to contest as an independent. "in retrospect i find my prospects are better this time. a certain section of voters were hostile towards me last time but still i polled 35 votes," he stated. mallya said he had no issues or a poll plank. "i don''t want to use my office to enrich any position and there is no need for it. the ub group and my family has done a lot for karnataka, working for its upliftment. i am the true son of the soil - <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">mannina maga</span>," he maintained. mallya admitted he had sought the congress support. no assurance has been given, he added. a close aide of mallya said the latter has taken the plunge after a lot of procrastination. "despite the janata parivar''s support, mallya was hesitant as he has to garner another 20 more votes to win. once that was assured, he decided to contest," the aide added. mallya unsuccessfully contested for the rajya sabha in march 2000. but he surprised everyone by polling 35 votes as against the dal''s committed 19. a candidate needs 45 first preferential votes to get elected. the congress with a strength of 148, including the independents, will be left with 13 surplus votes after allotting to its three members. the bjp with a total strength of 43 falls short of five votes - two suspended members have pledged support to mallya while prakash khandre is facing a court case and hence cannot vote. scrutiny of the nominations papers will be on friday. elections are scheduled for march 27. </div> </div>