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BJP fields Sitharaman, actor Jaggesh for Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka
The terms of Sitharaman, KC Ramamurthy and Jairam Ramesh will expire on June 30. Oscar Fernandes died in September last year.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday nominated union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Kannada actor-turned-politician Jaggesh as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka.
The elections to 57 seats in the upper house of Parliament, spread across 15 states and union territories, will be held on June 10. Four of these seats are from Karnataka.
The terms of Sitharaman, KC Ramamurthy and Jairam Ramesh will expire on June 30. Oscar Fernandes died in September last year.
“Congratulations to union minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Shri Jaggesh who have been elected official candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party from Karnataka for the Rajya Sabha elections,” Basavaraj Bommai, the chief minister of Karnataka, said in a post on Twitter on Sunday.
The candidature of Jaggesh, a popular Kannada cinema actor and former BJP MLC, has taken a section of the party by surprise.
Jaggesh, who has acted in 147 Kannada movies over his three-decade-old career, said even he was surprised at his candidature.
“I had made no such requests or demands for the seat. I was carrying out the responsibility given to me by the party and carrying out my profession. When I get time, I would work for the party. This is a very big surprise for me,” said Jaggesh the 59-year-old movie star.
Known for his comic-genre of movies, Jaggesh has earned the moniker “Navarasa Nayaka”.
Jaggesh was the BJP’s candidate in Yeshwanthpur in Bengaluru in the 2018 assembly elections in which he came third with a total of around 60,000 votes.
He was then made the state spokesperson of the party.
“This entire announcement has been a surprise to me. After the news came out in the media, some leaders got in touch with me and asked me to keep my papers ready for nomination which I will be filing tomorrow,” Jaggesh said.
