Nirmala Sitharaman, Jaggesh are BJP's Rajya Sabha candidates from Karnataka

The BJP leadership on Sunday announced Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and actor-turned-politician Jaggesh as candidates from Karnataka for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls scheduled on June 10.

The announcement came amid speculations that Sitharaman could be fielded from Uttar Pradesh to make room for candidates from Karnataka.

Ahead of the announcement, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that discussions were held to secure three of the four seats bound for polls in Karnataka.

While the saffron party has announced two of the candidates for the four seats by virtue of its numbers in the Legislative Assembly, Congress is expected to announce a candidate in the coming days. However, uncertainty continued over the last seat as none of the parties had the strength in the Legislative Assembly to elect another candidate unopposed.

Speaking to reporters, Bommai said that the party required additional votes for the third seat. "Discussions were held on how to proceed to secure the third seat," Bommai said.

Selecting a third candidate is possible only if two parties join hands ahead of the election, the CM said. "We will see who will hold talks with whom. Nothing is finalised yet," he said, adding that the state leadership has communicated the developments to the party top brass.