BJP’s RS candidate from Karnataka is businessman from weaver community

Narayan, who is a replacement for Ashok Gasti, runs Span Print, an established publisher of magazines and newspapers and is a staunch RSS follower.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced the name of K Narayan, a well known businessman in Karnataka, as party’s Rajya Sabha candidate for the vacancy created by the death of Ashok Gasti, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha in June 2020 for a six year term but succumbed to Covid-19 in September, necessitating a replacement.

K Narayan is a well known businessman and is set to replace Ashok Gasti as BJP member in Rajya Sabha. (HT Photo)

While there had been clamour from the Savita Samaj (traditional barber community) to replace Gasti with another community member, BJP opted for Narayan, who is from backward class Devanga (traditional weaver community) as its candidate. Though born in Mangaluru, Narayan has spent most of his time and built his business in Bengaluru.

Narayan runs Span Print, an established publisher of magazines and newspapers. A staunch RSS follower, Narayan publishes Samabashane Sandesha, a monthly magazine in Sanskrit, for the last 25 years and also edits a Tulu paper ‘Tulu Kedige.’

Tuesday was the last day for the filing of nominations, and if required, the polls would be held on December 1. With the current strength in the assembly, BJP can easily send its nominee to the upper house of Parliament. Even though the party high command did not consider any of the three candidates suggested by the local unit, CM Yediyurappa, BJP state unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel and others welcomed the nomination of Narayan as their RS candidate.