Council bypoll: Congress likely to field Boseraju, Shettar, Chinchansur

The names of Science and Technology minister N S Boseraju, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar and former minister Baburao Chinchansur among others doing rounds in the Congress, ahead of the byelection to three seats of the Legislative Council scheduled for June 30.

The bypolls are necessitated following the resignation of Chinchanasur, Laxman Savadi and R Shankar, who quit their seats to contest the Assembly polls.

Chinchansur and Savadi joined the Congress, while R Shankar contested as an NCP candidate. Only Savadi could win the May 10 elections.

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As per the notification by the Election Commission of India, the last date to file nominations is June 20 (Tuesday).

The scrutiny of nominations will be held on June 21 and the last date to withdraw the nominations is on June 23. The polling and counting will be held on June 30.

With the last date of filing nominations fast approaching, the Congress is likely to release its list of nominees by Monday evening.

A senior Congress leader told DH that it is almost certain that the party may finalise Boseraju and Chinchansur, while there is a tough lobbying going on between Shettar and Congress veteran S R Patil.

The leader added that the party wanted to field Shettar in the next Lok Sabha polls against Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, but Shettar seems to have made up his mind to enter the Upper House and is eyeing the post of Legislative Council chairman in the near future.

“Party veteran S R Patil too is lobbying hard to secure the MLC seat, but as of now it appears that the scales are tilting in favour of Shettar, who had resigned from the BJP and joined the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections. Although he lost the election, a section of party leaders believes that offering a prominent post to the Lingayat leader will help the party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls,” the source claimed.

Despite not being a member of either House, Boseraju is a minister and is bound to make it to the list. This apart, the party needs to appoint the leader of the House in the Legislative Council ahead of the Budget session that is slated to commence on July 3, the source noted.

Former minister Chinchansur, who is considered to be a close aide of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, is a front-runner for the third seat.

The names of former minister Umashree, Siddaramaiah's son Dr Yathindra, educationist Mansoor Ali Khan and former minister H M Revanna too are doing the rounds.

However, it is said, Siddaramaiah is opposed to nominating his son for the election to the Upper House.