BENGALURU: The BJP has selected senior leader CT Ravi, state general secretary and chief whip in the legislative council N Ravikumar and former Basavakalyan MLA Maruthirao G Muley as its nominees for the June 13 Council polls from the Assembly.
Former minister Ravi was BJP national general secretary, and lost the May 10 assembly polls from Chikkamagaluru assembly constituency which he had won for four consecutive terms.
He is likely to become the leader of the opposition in the Upper House if incumbent Srinivas Poojary gets elected from Udupi-Chikkamagaluru Lok Sabha seat. Ravi was an aspirant for the LS seat from Udupi-Chikkamagaluru or Bengaluru North, but did not make the cut.
The party is now considering him for an MLC post, and is likely to make use of Ravi’s experience.
Madhuswamy, Sumalatha not in
Party workers gave Ravi arousing welcome in Chikkamagaluru on Sunday. For N Ravikumar, loyalty paid off as he is entering the Council for a second term. He has the backing of most of the leaders within the BJP and also RSS. The high command chose Muley to give representation to the Maratha community in Karnataka.
He held the first Maratha Development Corporation chairperson’s post during Basavaraj Bommai’s tenure as chief minister in the previous BJP government . Earlier, Muley was with Cong re s s, and in 1999, he won from Basavakalyan assembly constituency as a JDS nominee.
Mandya MP Sumalatha Ambareesh, whose name was in the reckoning as BJP nominee for the MLC polls, missed the ticket. Many aspirants, including Prof Ma Nagaraj, a Kuruba, women’s wing leaders Malavika Avinash, Manjula, Geetha Vivekananda and others were also disappointed, sources said. Former minister J C Madhuswamy, another aspirant, was denied the MLC ticket as he did not pay heed to the party high command in the LS polls and went against party candidate V Somanna in Tumakuru.
Leaders from Tumakuru, including district president Ravishankar, MLAs B Suresh Gowda and G B Jyothiganesh had openly opposed Madhuswamy’s candidature, and petitioned the party bosses. Sources said former CM BS Yediyurappa pushed hard for Madhuswamy’s nomination, but the high command refused.
Considering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on OBCs in the LS election campaign, the high command kept the focus on empowering the OBC community and chose two of three OBC candidates for nomination.