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Karnataka BJP suggests 3 names to party high command for 2 RS seats it can win
Sources in the party said that they had requested the high command to field only two candidates as they would be short of 15 votes for a third candidate.
The core committee of the Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party unit which met in Bangalore on Saturday has recommended the names of Prabhakar Kore, Ramesh Katti and Prakash Shetty to the party high command for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls. The BJP, given its strength in the assembly, can easily win two seats and would need 15 more votes in case of it deciding to field a third candidate.
The meeting which took place at the state party headquarters in Malleshwaram was attended by state unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, cabinet ministers Jagadish Shettar, C T Ravi, R Ashoka, K S Eshwarappa, Deputy CM Govind Karajola as well as senior leaders including C M Udasi.
Union ministers D V Sadananda Gowda, Prahalad Joshi and general secretary in charge of the Karnataka unit Muralidhara Rao and D Purandareswari who is co-in-charge participated via a video conference.
While the core committee is said to have discussed various names including those of media and transport baron Vijay Sankeshwar-- a former two-term Lok Sabha MP, Tejaswini - social activist and wife of former union minister and BJP stalwart Ananth Kumar, Sudha Murthy - philanthropist and wife of Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, K V Kamath - former ICICI bank chief, Prof M Nagaraj - a Sangh ideologue from Northern Karnataka and a few others, it finally decided to recommend the names of Kore, Katti and Shetty for the party high command’s final consideration.
Prabhakar Kore is an education baron who controls about 250 educational institutions in Karnataka and Maharashtra under the Karnataka Lingayat Education (KLE) society and is a current Rajya Sabha member whose term will end on June 25.
The second name is that of Ramesh Katti, who is the brother of eight-term MLA Umesh Katti, a prominent BJP leader from Northern Karnataka. Ramesh Katti narrowly lost out the BJP Lok Sabha ticket from the Chikkodi parliamentary seat and the brothers have been pressurising CM Yediyurappa to keep what they say is his promise to send the younger Katti sibling to the upper house of parliament.
The last name on the list is Prakash Shetty a hospitality and real estate entrepreneur who runs a chain of hotels. The BJP may decide to field a third candidate only if somebody like Shetty can ensure the additional 15 votes required to get elected. A member needs 44 votes to win.
Sources in the party said that they had requested the high command to field only two candidates as they would be short of 15 votes for a third candidate. “Finally the high command will decide the names from the list recommended or decide to have its own names. Since Tuesday is the last day for nominations, we expect the names to be announced on Sunday. We have not decided what we would do with the additional votes,” said a senior leader of the party who didn’t want to be identified after the core committee meeting.
Congress has already announced veteran party leader Mallikarjuna Kharge as its candidate, while JD(S) which has 34 MLAs and would require 10 additional votes to get its candidate elected says party supremo HD Deve Gowda is yet to take a call on contesting. The elections are scheduled for June 19 and the last day of nominations is June 9.
