BENGALURU: Former ministers and senior Congress leaders MR Seetharam and Umashree, and former Enforcement Directorate officer HP Sudham Das were on Saturday nominated as members of the Karnataka Legislative Council.
After the Congress Central leaders cleared the names for nomination to the three vacant posts in the Upper House of the state legislature, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had earlier sent the recommendation to the Raj Bhavan. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot on Saturday issued the order nominating Seetharam, Umashree, and Das as MLCs.
Seetharam had worked as a minister for Planning, Statistics, and Science and Technology, and Umashree, actress-turned-politician, was the Women and Child Development minister in the Siddaramaiah government from 2013 to 2018.
Siddaramaiah congratulated the leaders nominated as members of the Council. “I hope that you will work to uphold the aspirations of the constitution and democracy,” the CM stated on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Some senior leaders in the Congress had opposed the party high command decision to nominate Das as MLC as he had joined the party just ahead of the May 10 Assembly elections. Some ministers had also written to the party high command stating that their opinion should also be taken in the nomination to the Council.
That apart, some organisations had also written to the Raj Bhavan to scrutinise the names recommended
by the government as the nomination to the Upper House should be from the fields of social service, culture, and related fields.