Bengaluru, 8 June

Karnataka BJP President BY Vijayendra on Monday said a common worker who had honestly served the organisation had been nominated for the Rajya Sabha polls. He clarified that the nomination of former prime minister and JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda was not discussed at the state unit level.

This comes amid criticism, including from the ruling Congress, accusing the BJP of ignoring Gowda, who just turned 94.

On Sunday, the BJP announced Prof. M. Nagaraja as its Rajya Sabha candidate as the party can win one of the four seats going to polls on 18 June.

The polls come as four MPs, including Gowda, are set to retire. JD(S) was reportedly hoping that the BJP would re-nominate its supremo.

BJP also named Lingaraj Patil and Raghu Kautilya for the Legislative Council polls.

He said Nagaraja belongs to the backward Kuruba community, grew up in the RSS, and served in the ABVP and also as the state vice-president. He also served in the Karnataka Public Service Commission under ex-CM BS Yediyurappa.

He added that Raghu Kautilya of the Madivala community had served as OBC morcha Chief.

Seven MLCs — Congress leaders Naseer Ahmed, Tippannappa, and BK Hariprasad, BJP leaders N Nagaraju (MTB), Prathap Simha Nayak K, and Sunil Vallyapur; and Govinda Raju [JD(S)] — are set to retire on 30 June.

The BJP can win two of these seven MLC seats, while the Congress has fielded candidates for the remaining five seats.

Congress has 134 MLAs in the 224-member Assembly, the BJP has 62 and JD(S) has 18.