The Congress on Wednesday renominated two Rajya Sabha members, Syed Naseer Hussein and G.C. Chandrashekar, and fielded a fresh candidate and Delhi party leader Ajay Maken for four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka for which elections will be held on February 27.
Mr. Maken is currently AICC treasurer and has served as Union Minister in the UPA-II.
Mr. Hussein is seen as a person from the inner circle of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, while Mr. Chandrashekar, a Vokkaliga, is seen as close to KPCC president and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and a few senior leaders of the party in the State.
Mr. Chandrashekar, a native of Arkalgud in Hassan, is settled in Bengaluru for many years. Mr. Hussain, who holds a doctoral degree from JNU, New Delhi, is a native of Ballari. He served as national media panellist for the party and member of various committees of Parliament.
The party has not renominated L. Hanumanthaiah, a Dalit writer, and instead fielded Mr. Maken.
The Congress, with 135 MLAs, and having support of three more members, including Darshan Puttanaiah of Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha, and two Independents, is expected to retain the three seats from Karnataka.
The BJP and the Janata Dal (S) with 66 and 19 members, respectively, will be able to win the fourth seat. Each candidate has to get 45 votes to win the seat.
