BJP chooses OBC leader Prof. Nagaraja as candidate for Rajya Sabha polls from Karnataka

The speculation over whether the 93-year-old former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda will get one more opportunity to serve as Rajya Sabha member has ended with the BJP choosing OBC leader and educationist Prof. M. Nagaraja as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections being held from Karnataka. Mr. Gowda is scheduled to retire from Rajya Sabha on June 25.

The name of Prof. Nagaraja, who has been associated with RSS since his student days, was cleared by the party central election committee late in the night on Sunday (June 7, 2026).

He will have to file his nominations before 3 p.m. on Monday (June 8, 2026) when the deadline closes.

Mr. Nagaraja, who hails from Hubballi, had earlier served as BJP State vice president and also member of Karnataka Public Service Commission. He had also served as member of the committee that looked into construction of office building under the Party’s plan to have a party office in every district.

Mr. Gowda, who is the national president of Janata Dal (S), had to depend on the support of his ally BJP to contest the Rajya Sabha elections as his party did not have the necessary number of MLAs to ensure his victory on its own.

The BJP choosing Prof. Nagaraja, who hails from OBC community, is also being seen as part of political strategy by the party to make inroads into the OBC vote bank of the Congress in the wake of its leader Siddaramaiah stepping down as Chief Minister.

The biennial elections have been necessitated due to the retirement of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, and BJP members Iranna Kadadi and Narayana Koragappa on June 25.

While June 8 is the last day for filing nominations, they will be scrutinised on June 9. The last day for withdrawal of nominations is June 11.

Polling will be held on June 18. Counting of votes will be taken up at 5 p.m. on the same day.

MLC polls

Meanwhile the BJP has also fielded Lingaraj Patil and Raghu Kautilya as its candidates for the forthcoming elections to the Legislative Council from the Assembly constituency. It has not given tickets to any of it’s sitting MLCs who are retiring.

The biennial elections are being held as seven MLCs, who have been elected by the Legislative Assembly, are retiring on June 30. The retiring MLCs are Govindaraju (Congress), Naseer Ahmed (Congress), M.T.B. Nagaraju (BJP), Prathap Simha Nayak (BJP), Thippannappa (Congress), Sunil Vallyapur (BJP) and B.K. Hariprasad (Congress).

The biennial elections to seven council seats will be held on June 18. The last day for filing nominations for MLC polls is June 11 while polling by MLAs will be held on June 18.