BJP may field Javadekar for RS polls from State

The BJP central leadership is planning to field newly appointed Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar from Karnataka in Rajya Sabha polls, schedule for June 19.

During the State leaders’ meeting with party president Rajnath Singh here recently, Singh reportedly hinted at the chances of selecting a senior leader from outside Karnataka for the Rajya Sabha seat.

When Karnataka leaders suggested that it would be better to give ticket to local leaders, Rajnath is learnt to have said that the central leaders will take a final call.

Two Union ministers, Javadekar and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, are not the members of either Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha and they have six months’ time to get elected from any House to continue to be minister. 

It is learnt that the BJP clinched the deal with its partner Telugu Desham Party (TDP) to elect Nirmala from Andhra Pradesh in place of vacancy created after the death of Congress member N Janardhana Reddy. Reddy, who passed away early this month, had two more years left as member of the Upper House.

Javadekar had earlier served as RS member from Maharashtra and his term ended in April, 2014.

The State BJP leaders, who have been demanding to nominate only local leaders, say that sending one more ‘outsider’ to the Uppper House from Karnataka would be injustice to the State unit, saying that there are already two ‘outsiders’ representing Karnataka in Rajya Sabha from the party – Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu belongs to Andhra Pradesh and R Ramakrishna belongs to Tamil Nadu.

Meet on State BJP unit’s choice

The State BJP core-committee, scheduled to meet on Friday, is likely to recommend the names of either sitting Rajya Sabha member Prabhakar Kore or businessman Prakash Shetty for nomination to the Rajya Sabha polls.

While Kore, who runs a chain of educational institutions, will be seeking renomination to the Upper House, Shetty runs a chain of hotels and has been actively backing the BJP for the last two decades.