Congress chooses Rajiv Gowda over S M Krishna for Rajya Sabha polls

BANGALORE: Congress today fielded its spokesman Rajiv Gowda for the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka with former External Affairs Minister S M Krishna losing the race to him.

The suspense over Krishna's choice remained till today, the last day for filing nominations for the four seats to be filled up, and the high command finally plumped for Gowda, a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management here. Krishna, a former Chief Minister who is set to retire from Rajya Sabha on June 25, lost out mainly on account of his age--83 years to 43-year old Gowda, Congress sources said.

Gowda filed his papers today, as also the other Congress candidate and its General Secretary B K Hariprasad, whom the party decided to renominate for another term. Gowda was an aspirant for Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat in the recent polls but failed to get party ticket with the party opting for Narayanaswamy who lost to BJP's P C Mohan.

Given its strength in the 225-member Assembly, the ruling Congress can easily win two seats and BJP and JDS one each. Not willing to take any chances, the party dropped the idea of fielding a third candidate. BJP has renominated Prabhakar Kore and JDS fielded Kupendra Reddy.

Speaking to reporters after filing nomination, Gowda said Congress could have given a chance to a youngster like him "to work for the next 20 years to rebuild the party and take on Narendra Modi government and bring Congress back to power".

He said there is no confusion in the Congress on the issue of Krishna's re-nomination. "Krishna is the tallest leader and is a role model for people like me. There was no race between me and Krishna."

On denial of re-nomination of Krishna, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President G Parameshwara said "I do not know the reason behind Congress high command leaving out Krishna's name from contesting polls. But the decision has hurt me. Krishna still has the capacity to work." "In Congress, however, we have to go with the decisions made by the high command and that is what all the leaders have to do," Parameshwara said.