Council elections

Prof. M. Nagaraja is BJP candidate for Rajya Sabha seat

Just a day ahead of the deadline for filing nominations, the BJP late last evening announced its candidates for the upcoming elections to the Legislative Council and Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

The party named State BJP OBC Morcha President Raghu Kautilya and Lingaraj Patil as its candidates for the Legislative Council polls from the Karnataka Assembly segment. The BJP is contesting the elections in alliance with the JD(S) in the State.

For the Rajya Sabha seat, the party announced Prof. M. Nagaraja as its nominee. With this decision, speculation over the BJP-led NDA possibly renominating JD(S) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda has come to an end.

Today (June 8) is the last day for filing nominations. Scrutiny of papers will be held on June 9 while June 11 is the last date for withdrawal of nominations. Polling for both Legislative Council and Rajya Sabha seats will take place on June 18, with results expected the same evening.

Meanwhile, the BJP-JD (S) alliance has added a new dimension to the Legislative Council contest by fielding a third candidate to counter the fifth nominee announced by the ruling Congress. The coalition has fielded JD(S) leader Govindaraju, who is expected to file his nomination on the final day.

Raghu Kautilya, who hails from Mysuru and belongs to the backward Madiwala community, had earlier contested Legislative Council elections from the local bodies Constituency in the Mysuru-Chamarajanagar segment in 2015 and 2021 on a BJP ticket, narrowly losing on both occasions.

He has previously served as Chairman of the Karnataka Exhibition Authority (KEA), the D. Devaraj Urs Backward Classes Development Corporation and Mysuru-based Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited (MPVL).

The ruling Congress had announced four candidates for the Legislative Council polls last week and added a fifth nominee a few days ago after D.K. Shivakumar assumed charge as the Chief Minister.