BENGALURU: Nominations to three vacant Legislative Council seats that have been pending for over two months are likely to be cleared soon and Congress has almost finalised the names of MR Seetharam, HP Sudham Das and Umashree, according to reliable sources. As per protocol, the cabinet will decide on the nominations and as a formality authorise Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to take the decision. The chief minister will then forward the names to the governor, who will give his assent.
The cabinet is likely to take the decision at one of its meetings soon. While Siddaramaiah has backed the candidature of Umashree, his depuy DK Shivakumar is keen on Sudham Das.
The sources said, “The name of Mansoor Khan, who is one of the AICC office bearers in-charge of Telangana, had been finalised earlier. But now he has to make way for former minister Umashree.”
If that happens, Mansoor will be unlucky the second time as even earlier, his name was removed at the last minute to accommodate Abdul Jabbar. Mansoor’s attempts to contest from the Chickpet Assembly constituency too failed as the party decided to pick former MLA RV Devraj, who lost.
Of the likely nominees, Sudham Das is a career revenue service bureaucrat who joined Congress about six months ago and hails from the SC left community.
Seetharam is an educationist, former minister and former MLA, who represented Malleswaram.
Umashree is a former actor who won from the Terdal constituency on a Congress ticket in 2013. But she lost subsequent elections in 2018 and 2023 from the same seat.
Letter to Governor
None of the three has to face an election as they will go directly to the 75-member Legislative Council.
They will replace former mayor PR Ramesh, filmmaker Mohan Kondajji and social activist CM Lingappa, whose terms ended around two months ago. The term of an MLC lasts six years. Recently, the Muslim Jagruti Vedike and Raghu Achar of Nyayamitra wrote to Governor Thawaarchand Gehlot about the proposed candidates, and he in turn has sent the letter to the chief secretary.