HD Deve Gowda To Contest Rajya Sabha Elections

Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) (JD-S) leader HD Deve Gowda has decided to contest the Rajya Sabha elections. He is doing this at the request of party legislators, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and many other leaders.

Hisson and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said that Deve Gowdawill file the nomination on Tuesday.

DeveGowda in January said that he is not interested in going to the Rajya Sabha.The JD(S) leader had said that he will "work towards strengthening the party".

FourRajya Sabha seats from Karnataka are falling vacant this month after RajeevGowda and BK Hari Prasad of the Congress, Prabhakar Kore of the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) and D Kupendra Reddy of the JD(S) retire.

Gowdaleft his traditional stronghold of Hassan – from where he was elected fivetimes between 1991 and 2014 – to his grandson Prajwal Revanna in the Lok Sabhaelections held last year.

Hehad contested from the Tumkuru Lok Sabha seat. While Revanna won, Gowda lost tothe BJP's GS Basavaraj by about 13,000 votes.

Theelections to fill the vacant 18 Rajya Sabha seats from seven states will beheld on June 19. The last date of filing nominations has been fixed on June 9while scrutiny of papers would be held on June 10.

The last date of withdrawal of papers has been fixed on June 12, the notification from the Election Commission of India said.

Congresshas decided to field one candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls. Karnataka PradeshCongress Committee (KPCC) chief DK Shivakumar said on Monday that the party wouldsoon take a decision on the issue of support Deve Gowda's candidature.