JOIN USThe Congress high command on Friday is learnt to have cleared the names of sitting Rajya Sabha members Oscar Fernandes and Jairam Ramesh as its candidates for the elections to the Upper House from Karnataka.
The party also decided to field former IPS officer and chief of Bengalur-based CMR group of educational institutions K C Ramamurthy as third candidate. Elections are being held for four Rajya Sabha seats from the State on June 11.
The names were cleared by Congress president Sonia Gandhi during a meeting with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara. This will be the fourth term for Fernandes from Karnataka and third for Jairam Ramesh, who is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Telangana.
The party is hoping to win the third seat with the support of five Janata Dal (S) MLAs. “Though, the third candidate Ramamurthy may fall short of 14 votes to win even after obtaining the excess Congress votes, we are confident of getting the required support from Independents and JD(S) MLAs,” a senior congress leader said.
Zameer meets Digvijaya
In a related development, JD (S) MLA B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan on Friday met Congress General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Digvijaya Singh. It is learnt that Khan pledged his support to the Congress in the Rajya Sabha polls.
Khan, who was closeted with Singh for more than half-an-hour, is learnt to have told him that five JD(S) MLAs were ready to support the Congress candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections. Khan, it is said, told Singh that apart from him four other MLAs, H C Balakrishna (Magadi), N Chaluvanarayanaswamy (Nagamangala) Akanda Srinivasmurthy (Pulakeshinagara) and Iqbal Ansari (Gangavathi) will support the Congress candidates.