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A day after the core committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cleared the name of veteran BJP leader B S Yedyiurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra for the legislative council polls, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday said the matter will be discussed and decided by the high command on Monday. The state unit also gave its nod to re-elect Nirmala Sitharaman to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.
The core committee meeting was attended by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, party national general secretary in charge of the state Arun Singh, state president Nalin Kumar Kateel, former chief ministers Yediyurappa and Jagadish Shettar, Union minister Pralhad Joshi and national general secretary C T Ravi, among others.
The biennial elections to seven seats in the Karnataka Legislative Council will be held on June 3 as the existing MLCs will retire on June 14. Elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from the state – two each from graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies – will be held on June 10 and 13.
The names of candidates for the MLC polls from the graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies have already been announced. It includes BY Vijayendra, former deputy chief minister and outgoing MLC Laxman Savadi, state vice-president M Rajendra, general secretary Mahesh Tenginkai, SC Morcha president Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, former MLCs M B Bhanuprakash and Siddaraju, and Mahila Morcha president Geetha Vivekananda, among others, sources familiar about the developments said.
Vijayendra has reportedly expressed his interest to contest the 2023 Assembly polls from one of the seats in the old Mysuru region and has expressed interest to work in the same region, said a party source.
If he manages to get elected as an MLC, there will be a demand for his induction into Bommai’s Cabinet as his father had stepped down as chief minister in July last year, a BJP leader said. Central leaders of the BJP may reconsider the state core committee’s decision as the party’s decision on Vijayendra may face backlash from leaders who have worked for the BJP for many years, a leader said.
The core committee also recommended Nirmala Sitharaman for re-election to Rajya Sabha, sources said. The names of outgoing Rajya Sabha member K C Ramamurthy, outgoing MLC Lehar Singh Siroya, Nirmal Kumar Surana and entrepreneur Prakash Shetty are doing the rounds for the second seat. Of the four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, the BJP can win at least two and the Congress one.
The ruling BJP currently has 37 members in the 75-member Legislative Council where it is just one short of a simple majority. While the Congress’s strength is 26, JD(S) has 10 members. There is also one Independent member other than the chairman.
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