Bengaluru: With elections looming for 11 seats of the Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly, the BJP is having a problem of plenty with over a dozen members of the party vying to contest the five seats allocated to it. Sources said the party has finalised the names of five candidates and sent them to the central election committee.
Ten Legislative Council seats will fall vacant on June 17 when sitting members, B. J. Puttaswamy, B.S.Suresh, M.R. Seetharam, Motamma, D.S. Veeraiah, Syed Muneer Pasha, Somanna Bevinamarada, Raghunath Rao Malkapure, Banuprakash, and K. Govindaraju will retire. One seat is already vacant following the death of Ms Vimala Gowda . The process of elections to the Council from the Assembly will begin from the first week of June.
Based on their party strength in the Assembly, the BJP can elect five MLCs, Congress, four and JD(S) , two. The BJP, whose members in the Upper House are drawn from the OBC, Dalit, Brahmin and Vokkaliga communities, has decided to continue the same caste combination.
BJP state chief, B S Yeddyurappa has reportedly promised a seat in the Upper House to party leader, Rudresh Gowda after he was denied a ticket from the Shivamogha assembly constituency in the recent state poll and former Council member and party spokesperson, Ashwathnarayana, is also likely to be considered in the Vokkaliga quota as he too was denied a ticket to contest the Assembly elections.
While BJP MLC, B.J. Puttaswamy is seeking a second term from the OBC quota, he has competition from BJP general secretary , N. Ravikumar, who reportedly has the backing of Mr. Yeddyurappa and party MP, Shobha Karandlaje. Another OBC leader of the party, Shankarappa is also seeking a ticket to the Upper House with support of Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda.
