BENGALURU: Incumbent Mandya MP Sumalatha Ambareesh, who did not contest the Lok Sabha elections this year, is likely to be among the three BJP nominees for the June 13 polls to elect 11 MLCs from the Assembly.
BJP sources told The New Indian Express that the high command has decided to pick Sumalatha after she “sacrificed” the Mandya seat to NDA candidate, HD Kumaraswamy. With 66 MLAs, the BJP can win three MLC posts.
Apart from Sumalatha, the names of party chief whip in the Council N Ravikumar and Prof Ma Nagaraj, who lost the Council polls from the West Teachers’ constituency, have been cleared, added sources. Nagaraj had unsuccessfully contested against Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti when the latter was the JDS candidate. But in the last polls, he had sacrificed his seat to Horatti as the latter joined the BJP.
From 30 aspirants, state BJP president BY Vijayendra and former organisational general secretary Rajesh GV shortlisted nine names. The candidates include JC Madhuswamy, CT Ravi, Malavika Avinash, Geetha Vivekananda, and C Manjula.