As part of the party's strategy to increase their fire power to take on the BJP, senior Congress leaders Oscar Fernandes and Jairam Ramesh filed their nominations on Monday for the June 11 Rajya Sabha elections from the Karnataka Assembly.
The third nominee of the Congress, educationist and former Inspector General Of Police K C Ramamurthy filed his papers with the Janata Dal (secular) nominee B A Farooqalso tendered his papers before Assembly Secretary S Murthy, who is also the returning officer for the elections.
The Congress candidates submitted their nominations in the presence of CM Siddaramaiah and PCC President and Home Minister G Parameshwara besides others.
BJP nominee and Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman will be filing her nomination papers on Tuesday. Nirmala Seetharaman who is retiring after a two year term from Andhra Pradesh assembly has now shifted to Karnataka replacing Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, who had been elected from the State for three terms. Naidu would now be contesting for Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
The congress high command has left the choice for the third candidate to chief minister Siddaramaiah and Parameshwara who have giving ticket to former cop KC Ramamurthy, who is heading the CMR Group of educational institutions.
With only four seats to be filled from Karnataka, election has become inevitable. Though Oscar Fernandes and Jairam Ramesh would have smooth sailing, Ramamurthy need to bank on the support of Independents and likeminded MlAs. Both Siddaramaiah and Parameshwara expressed confidence over Mr Ramamurthy emerging victorious.
Parameshwara said "Since we have 32 seats of our own and need 13 votes more we are seeking support of Independents and likeminded MlAs."
Even though there would be a keen contest between the third candidate of the Congress and the JDs nominee, significantly five rebel MlAs of the JDs have announced their support to KC Ramamurthy of the Congress which has given impetus to the Congress campaign towards securing the third candidate. Five of the Jds MlAs have openly defied the JDs supremo Kumaraswamy and have identified with the congress to vote for the third candidate. In this scenario Congress needs just the support of eight more MlAs for the victory of the third candidate.
JD(S) was also in touch with its MlAs to ensure that its votes were not cast on behalf of the BJP or the Congress. Tuesday is the last date for filing nomination and scrutiny will be taken up on June 1 and last date for withdrawal isJune 3. In the 225 member house Congress has 123, BJP 44, JD(s) 40, Independents 9 and others 7.
With Oscar and Jairam Ramesh in the fray the Congress finds them as more fire power to taken on BJP Subramanian Swamy in Rajya Saba. Congress president Sonia Gandhi named former finance minister P Chidambaram from Maharashtra while former ministers Kapil Sibal and Jairam Ramesh were nominated from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka respectively. Well-known lawyer Vivek Thanka was nominated from Madhya Pradesh. Other candidates include Oscar Fernandes from Karnataka, Congress general secretary Ambika Soni from Punjab, Chaya Verma from Chhattisgarh and Pradeep Tamta from Uttarakhand.
