BENGALURU: With one day to go, the three major parties are likely to announce their final list of candidates for the June 3 MLC election. The election is necessitated as the term of seven members is due to expire on June 14.
The MLCs who will retire are Laxman Sangappa Savadi and Lehar Singh Siroya of BJP; Ramappa Timmapur, Allum Veerabhadrappa, Veena Achaiah S of Congress; and H M Ramesha Gowda and Narayana Swamy KV of JDS.
According to official sources, in this election, each MLC candidate will require a minimum of 29 votes to win, and on the basis of votes and strength of each party in the Legislative Assembly, the BJP will be able to win four seats, Congress two and JDS one.
KPCC president DK Shivakumar said that over 100 aspirants had applied or expressed interest, and the party had sent its recommendations to the central leadership. “Since there are only two MLC seats, how many names can we give? The high command will finally decide,” he added.
The ruling BJP and JDS have not announced their candidates yet. The Karnataka BJP unit is said to have recommended the names of former chief minister B S Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra, former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi, state vice-president M Rajendra, general secretary Mahesh Tenginkai, SC Morcha president Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, former MLCs M B Bhanuprakash and Siddaraju, and Mahila Morcha president Geetha Vivekananda.
Stating that there is pressure with regard to tickets for the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls, Shivakumar said, “We have brought to the notice of the high command how many seats BJP and JDS can win. All options are still open. We will decide wether to field a candidate for an extra seat or to support others,” he said, adding that the party is also keeping a watch on actions of the BJP and JDS.