BJP has 44 MLAs in the Assembly and needs one more MLA’s support to ensure Sitharaman's nomination is successful.
Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday filed nomination papers for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election from Karnataka. Sitharaman, accompanied by Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar, BJP state president and MP B S Yeddyurappa and BJP state leaders, arrived at Vidhana Soudha at 11.15 am to file the nomination papers.
Earlier, BJP wanted to re-nominate Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Parliamentary Affairs M Venkaiah Naidu for the fourth time but had to cancel it due to the opposition from Kannada organisations. Naidu was nominated by BJP from Karnataka for three consecutive terms to the Rajya Sabha.
Speaking with media persons after filing the nomination papers, Sitharaman said that she would take care of Karnataka’s interests in every way. “I am going to be a servant here being sent by honourable Prime Minister who calls himself Pradhan Sevak. I will be also a sevak and because I will have to represent Karnataka. I will make sure that the interests of Karnataka will be ensured in the Parliament,’’ she said.
When asked that Venkaiah Naidu had also given similar assurances and promised to work for the welfare of Karnataka but did nothing, she said: “Venkaiah Naidujee is a very senior leader of our party. He has been a former president, we all respect him. He has done his best. We will continue the tradition. We will do as much we can under the leadership of Yeddyurappaji, other former chief ministers and Union Minister Ananth Kumar.’’
She said that Karnataka had wonderful schemes during Yeddyurappaji’s regime. “There was a separate budget for agriculture during Yeddyurappa regime,’’ she added.
BJP has 44 MLAs in the Assembly and needs one more MLA’s support to ensure the election of Nirmala Sitharaman for Rajya Sabha without any problems.
Interesting contest
The election to Karnataka Legislative Council took an interesting turn with BJP fielding Lehar Singh as its second candidate in the election scheduled for June 10. The interesting thing is that BJP needs 11 more votes to bag the second seat in the election to the Council. BJP has nominated V Somanna as its first candidate in the election to the Council.
It remains to be seen how BJP leaders will succeed in getting the 11 votes in support of the second candidate. Karnataka Minister for Energy DK Shivakumar and JD(S) leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy have also taken the election to the Council as a prestige issue. It's a question of who will blink first since both of them have claimed to have the support of Independent MLAs and dissident MLAs of Congress and JD(S).
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 "Sitharaman filing her nomination papers.")
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