BENGALURU: It isn’t just the disqualified legislators of the Congress and JDS who are the BJP’s picks for the bypolls. The party on Wednesday extended the same courtesy to former Congress Rajya Sabha MP KC Ramamurthy when it announced his name as its candidate for the December 12 Rajya Sabha bypolls.
Ironically, Ramamurthy is being fielded for a post that fell vacant due to his own resignation earlier this year.
His resignation as Rajya Sabha member from the Congress was seen as part of an elaborate plan by the BJP to get its numbers right in the Upper House. Soon after he resigned, Ramamurthy jumped ship to the BJP. He had given ample hints of joining the BJP when he had said, “I resigned of my own volition and wanted to be part of the new India growth story”.
The former IPS officer and educationist was elected to Rajya Sabha on June 11, 2016 and resigned on October 16. Soon after his induction into BJP, he had said, “in Congress one has to survive at the cost of his soul”.Unless the Congress and the JDS decide on backing one candidate unanimously, Ramamurthy’s win is certain.
Same Seat, Different Party
Much like how it backed the Congress-JDS rebels by giving them tickets to contest the Assembly bypoll, BJP announced Ramamurthy’s name as its Rajya Sabha candidate. If all goes as per BJP’s calculations, he will be elected easily to fill the vacant seat, albeit from a different political party.