The BJP's central election committee has nominated two new faces as its party candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka. In a surprise move, the BJP central leadership rejected all three names recommended by the state core committee on June 6 and picked two little known faces, party workers Eeranna Kadadi (54) from Belagavi and Ashok Gasti (55) from Raichur.
Hectic lobbying by sitting RS MP Prabhakar Kore and Ramesh Katti, brother of former minister and sitting MLA Umesh Katti had created a rift among the state BJP leaders. The infighting between Kore and Katti hailing from politically influential families from Belagavi who both belong to the dominant Lingayat community had resulted in factionalism.
However, the party choosing ordinary party workers is expected to boost the morale of the cadres in the region. Both Kadadi and Gasti have worked in various capacities within the party organisation in the north Karnataka region. Kadadi, who joined the BJP in 1989, started his political innings as the president of Arabhavi BJP Yuva Morcha, became Gokak district BJP president, and was elected president of Belagavi jilla panchayat in 2010. He is currently serving as BJP's Belagavi divisional in-charge covering the crucial Mumbai-Karnataka region. Kadadi belongs to Panchamasali Lingayat community.
Ashok Gasti is an advocate by profession and has been associated with ABVP, RSS and is currently serving as BJP's Raichur-Ballari Parliamentary constituency in-charge. Gasti belongs to the "Savita"(barber) community and is from the backward Hyderabad-Karnataka region (Kalyana Karnataka).
The Rajya Sabha will go to polls on June 19, to fill up the four seats that will fall vacant once the sitting members --Prabhakar Kore(BJP), B.K. Hariprasad and Rajeev Gowda (Both from Congress) and Kuppendra Reddy (JDS) retire on June 25. However, the BJP with 117 seats (in the 224-member Assembly) will have enough votes to elect only two and end with 27 surplus votes.
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The Congress party with 68 votes has nominated veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge for the sole seat and has indicated that it would transfer its surplus votes to JDS if it fields former Prime Minister HD Devegowda, as the regional party has only 34 votes and will fall short of seven votes. Both Kharge and Gowda were defeated in the 2019 Parliament elections from Kalaburagi and Tumkur respectively.
