BJP clears Rajeev Chandrasekhar for Rajya Sabha seat from Karnataka

Bengaluru: Kerala NDA vice chairman and media baron, Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s name has been cleared by the BJP central committee for the lone Rajya Sabha seat it can win from Karnataka. A highly placed source in the BJP defended the party’s decision to field Mr Chandrasekhar saying he had been a close associate of the BJP for the last two decades and is involved in Bengaluru related issues, the most recent one being the famous ‘Steel Flyover Beda’ campaign in the city which ultimately forced the ruling Congress to back off from the project.

The BJP central committee on Sunday cleared the name of Kerala NDA vice chairman and media baron, Rajeev Chandrashekhar for the lone Rajya Sabha seat it can win from Karnataka.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a highly placed source in the BJP strongly defending the party’s decision to field Mr Chandrashekhar saying he had been a close associate of the BJP for the last two decades and had been actively involved in Bengaluru related issues. “His most recent and biggest contribution to Bengaluru is the famous ‘Steel Flyover Beda’ campaign in the city which ultimately forced the ruling Congress party to back off from the project. Similarly, he has been a resident of Bengaluru for the last four decades and is a voter from the city, so the party chose him as its official candidate,” the source explained.

The source added that Mr Chandrashekhar’s schooling and his education till graduation, was from the prestigious NIT in Mangaluru, and is enough to prove that he is a Kannadiga since childhood. Showering praise on him, the source disclosed that Mr Chandrashekhar was actively involved in flood relief work carried out during the BJP’s tenure between 2008-13. “Under the then CM B.S. Yeddyurappa, he helped the BJP government to monitor and successfully implement the Aasre housing scheme in north-Karnataka region where floods had wreaked havoc,” the source said.