Bengaluru: The Karnataka Congress decision to field its senior leader from Delhi, Pawan Khera, to Rajya Sabha has drawn sharp criticism from IT honcho T V Mohandas Pai, who has questioned the wisdom behind fielding outsiders.
Taking to his X, Pai has said: "The question to ask is - Why is a non-Kannadiga, a total outsider to Karnataka, being promoted as a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka? One who has no loyalty to Karnataka, no relationship at all, no connection? Is there nobody from Karnataka fit to represent Karnataka?" he asked.
Calling it a 'total disrespect' towards the voters of the state, Mohandas Pai said that Karnataka does not belong to any political party. ``It is time Kannadigas spoke up against all political parties riding roughshod over us and promoting non-Kannadigas to represent us at our cost. This shows total disrespect to Kannadigas. All political parties should be asked to stop this very bad practice, which shows total disrespect to voters in a state. Karnataka does not belong to any political party. We are not subjects, but citizens,'' he added.
Nominating outsiders from the State for the Rajya Sabha is nothing new to Karnataka. In 1998, when the BJP in Karnataka could have only one Rajya Sabha nominee, Venkaiah Naidu from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh was nominated, and he was again nominated in 2004 and 2010. Then, the BJP fielded film actress Hema Malini, who was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka along with Venkaiah Naidu in 2010.
In 2016, when there was a lot of criticism over Venkaiah Naidu's candidature, the BJP started nominating the present Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in his place and she still represents Karnataka in the Rajya Sabha.
Even JD(S) did not lag behind in this. In 2004, when it was partnered in coalition government with Congress, JD(S) had nominated businessman M A M Ramaswamy from Tamil Nadu.
In the beginning, Congress refrained from directly supporting outsiders as its candidate. However, in 2006, when Rajiv Chandrashekhar from Kerala contested as an independent, he had all the blessings and support of Congress. But it fielded a direct outside candidate only in 2024, when Ajay Mekan was nominated to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka. The second candidate will be Pawan Khera.
