PUDUCHERRY: Film producer Ishari K Ganesh called on Chief Minister N Rangasamy, the NDA leader in Puducherry, on Saturday and expressed his desire to contest the lone Rajya Sabha seat, either as a nominee of BJP or AINRC. The interest shown by Ganesh is of significance as he is backed by the BJP after some of the legislators received support from Ganesh during the previous Assembly elections in UT.
Now the BJP wants to return the favour. However, Rangasamy’s choice is former minister Malladi Krishna Rao, who supported the AINRC during the last Assembly elections. Also, he has the reputation of getting Union government funds by pursuing the schemes.
The BJP’s desire to contest the seat is also seen as a strategy to pressurise the chief minister to appoint party MLAs and independents, supporting them, to the posts of chairmen in various government corporations and quasi-government bodies. The BJP has been requesting the chief minister, but the latter has not been very keen as most of the government corporations are running in losses, said sources.
The chief minister was identifying suitable PSUs and other quasi bodies like Puducherry Planning Authority (PPA), where MLAs of both AINRC and BJP and independents could be posted as non-official chairmen. But the BJP list given to him is not only long but also post-specific, added source.
In this backdrop, negotiations are on between the chief minister and the BJP leaders regarding the RS seat and the appointment of chairmen for PSUs; it is likely to culminate in the finalisation of the nominee for the Rajya Sabha poll.