Karnataka Congress, BJP bicker over 'outsiders' in Rajya Sabha polls

This comes after the BJP elected businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar as a state representative in the Upper House.
Karnataka Congress, BJP bicker over 'outsiders' in Rajya Sabha polls
Karnataka Congress, BJP bicker over 'outsiders' in Rajya Sabha polls
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The Karnataka Congress on Tuesday took a dig at the BJP for its decision to field Rajeev Chandrasekhar for the Rajya Sabha elections from the state, alleging that the party had ‘cheated’ Karnataka by repeatedly opting to nominate non-Kannadigas as representatives.

In a ten-page report titled ‘Namage Mosa: BJP cheats Karnataka’, the Congress posed the question, “Can non-Kannadigas really represent the state’s interests in Parliament? Are there no people from the state for the BJP to choose from?”

Last week, pro-Kannada organisations had raised objections to the nomination of Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Activists took to Twitter to tweet #RajeevBeda to put pressure on the BJP. 

Prior to this, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu had been elected to the Upper House from the state. Following criticism, Naidu was later elected from Rajasthan. 

Meanwhile, the Congress in Karnataka rejected the central leadership’s idea of electing technocrat Sam Pitroda from Karnataka and instead opted to elect three Kannadigas – Dr L Hanumanthaiah, Dr Syed Naseer Hussain and GC Chandrasekhar. All three nominees along with JD(S) nominee BM Farooq are Kannadigas. 

The BJP in its defense of Rajeev described him as a person who has ‘consistently raised issues of importance on Bengaluru and Karnataka’ and particularly highlighted his efforts to stop a steel flyover being constructed in the city, as per The Hindu.

The Congress report also alleged ten cases of ‘cheating’ by the BJP pointing out that the state government had sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in resolving the Mahadayi water issue. It also highlighted that the Centre was yet to decide on allowing competitive written tests to be written in Kannada for regional and rural banks.

Meanwhile, Vijay Sankeshwar, owner of influential newspaper Vijayavani, who was also tipped to be BJP’s Rajya Sabha candidate rejected initial reports that he was unhappy on being overlooked by the party. 

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