Bengaluru: Governor Vajubhai R. Vala on Wednesday nominated five persons including former Ministers A.H. Vishwanath and C.P. Yogeshwar and three others to the State Legislative Council. The three others nominated are BJP Mahila Morcha President Bharathi Shetty, Academician from Belagavi Sabanna Talwar and Tribal activist Shantaram Budna Siddi.

The nomination comes as a relief to Vishwanath who had defected from the Congress to the JD(S) ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls and later from the JD(S) to the BJP in July last year after quitting as sitting MLA from Hunsur. He had played a key role in the collapse of the previous coalition Government. 

Yogeshwar, who was a Minister in the BJP Cabinet over seven years ago, had lost the polls from Channapatna Constituency in the 2018 Assembly polls to H.D. Kumaraswamy of JD(S).Yogeshwar too had reportedly played a key role in engineering defections from Kumaraswamy led JD(S)-Congress coalition Government last year, which had resulted in BJP returning to power again in the State. Bharathi Shetty is currently heading the State Women’s Wing of BJP.

Sabanna Talwar is Chairman of the Economics Department at Rani Chennamma University in Belagavi, while Shantaram Siddi is an activist from Siddi Tribe, which traces its origins to Africa. Siddi has been working for tribal cause for over three decades through Vanavasi Kalyana Ashrama, an NGO. Both of them are from ST Community and their nomination, unlike the first three, were reportedly recommended by party High Command and is in line with its recent initiative to reward low-profile party workers.

Only last month, the BJP Central leadership had nominated party workers Ashok Gasti and Eranna Kadadi to the Rajya Sabha (RS).