The Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership has shifted senior Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu from Karnataka to Rajasthan for contesting the Rajya Sabha elections as its candidate. The party has brought in Union Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman to contest from Karnataka as its candidate for the elections to the Upper House.
It may be noted that various organisations including Kannada groups had launched a campaign seeking that only those from Karnataka should be fielded for the Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka. Kannada Rakshana Vedike had even staged protests in front of the BJP state office in Bengaluru and other cities against the moves to field Mr. Naidu. The senior leader, who is a native of Andhra Pradesh, had represented Karnataka for three terms in the Rajya Sabha.
According to party sources, Ms. Sitharaman’s Karnataka connection is that she has been a frequent visitor to Bengaluru right from her childhood as her maternal uncle lives here.
The candidature of Mr. Naidu from Rajasthan and Ms. Sitharaman from Karnataka was announced by the BJP’s Central Election Committee on Sunday.
Soon after the campaign seeking tickets for local people was launched, the BJP State unit had left it to its central leadership to take a call on the choice of the candidate for the Rajya Sabha poll from Karnataka, instead of the normal practice of recommending the name of a candidate to the Central Election Committee.
Meanwhile, the BJP has chosen former Karnataka minister V. Somanna as its candidate for the biennial election to the Legislative Council from the Assembly. A section in the state BJP was backing the candidature of RSS pracharak Sadashiva. However, Mr. Somanna has been chosen finally.
