Congress high command prevails over Karnataka unit in selection of RS polls candidates

It was suggested that the seat should be given to a Christian community leader since the seat fell vacant after the death of Oscar Fernandes

The Congress high command prevailed upon Karnataka Congress leaders and cleared the renomination of former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha election, despite their opposition.

Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and Pradesh Congress president D K Shivakumar met the party general secretary in charge of Karnataka affairs Randeep Surjewala to discuss Rajya Sabha candidates in Delhi recently.

The Congress central leader communicated to them the instructions from Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi that Jairam Ramesh will be the candidate and the state leaders should ensure his victory.

Since Congress can win one seat comfortably in the election from the state, Siddaramaiah suggested the candidature of former MLC Ivan D’souza. However, Shivakumar favoured giving the ticket to family members of the late Oscar Fernandes.

Both the leaders, while opposing the re-nomination of Jairam Ramesh, suggested that this seat should be given to a Christian community leader since the seat fell vacant after the death of Oscar Fernandes.

The state leaders are said to have suggested that fielding a Christian leader would ensure representation to the community and would help the party in next year’s assembly polls.

The state leaders’ grouse against Jairam Ramesh was that he was always aloof and did not raise state issues prominently in the Upper House. But the party central leaders refused to budge on fielding Jairam Ramesh. They asked the state leaders to field a second candidate of their choice if required.

Jairam Ramesh, who is close to Sonia, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, always played a key role in the preparation of the party manifesto, relying upon various reports on the Modi government’s failures, and drafting resolutions in important party meetings.

He is known for backroom work, including drafting letters whenever top leaders wrote to the President and the Prime Minister or any other leaders on various issues.

Since Jairam Ramesh is required for backroom works and strategy tasks, the party top brass decided to renominate him, a senior leader in Congress said.

Shivakumar, for his part, denied that the state leaders had opposed Jairam Ramesh’s candidature.

“The selection of candidates for Rajya Sabha is always the prerogative of central leaders. The state leaders never questioned the party high command decision on this issue,” Shivakumar said.

Even in the selection of candidates for the MLC elections, the party leaders from Delhi announced the candidature of their choice instead of heeding state leaders.

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar suggested former minister M R Seetharam who belongs to a backward community for the first seat.

For the second seat, Siddaramaiah suggested Ivan D’souza if he was not given the Rajya Sabha seat, while Shivakumar recommended Mansoor Ali Khan, son of former deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha Rehman Khan.

However, the party fielded former BMTC chairman Nagaraju Yadav and Adul Jabbar, Congress Minority Cell president.

It is learnt that senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge played a key role in the selection of these two candidates.