BANGALORE: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has still not finalised the name of its candidate for a second Rajya Sabha seat, since it is short of 11 votes. If the party puts up a second candidate who ends up losing, he or she will be the fourth to do so.

The late H. Veerabhadraiah (a former State police chief), Taradevi Siddhartha and Shankuntala Hegde were party candidates who lost in earlier elections. Ms. Hegde was the second candidate.

The former party President M. Venkaiah Naidu has said the BJP is loath to burn its fingers a fourth time. The second candidate (for one of the four seats for which biennial elections are being held) will be short of 11 votes. The arithmetic is as follows: The BJP has 79 votes, out of which 45 are the first preferential votes for the first candidate. It will be left with 34 surplus votes, which can be used for the second candidate, but the party will be short of 11 votes.

Both the BJP and its coalition partner, the Janata Dal (Secular), are determined that the fourth seat should not be handed over to the Congress on a platter, which is likely to happen if the JD(S) does not go along with the BJP in supporting a consensus candidate. The names doing the rounds as the consensus candidate are those of Sajjan Jindal and Rajiv Chandrashekar, BPL India's Chief Executive Officer.

`Consultations on'

While speaking to presspersons here on Sunday, Mr. Naidu refused to be drawn into a discussion on the topic, and said consultations are still going on with the JD(S) and within the party on who is to be fielded.

Sources told The Hindu that Mr. Jindal, Managing Director of Vijayanagar Steel Ltd. based in Bellary, is the front-runner though Mr. Chandrashekar's name has been in the air.

The choice of K.B. Shanappa for one seat, which is certain to fall into the BJP bag, itself is an attempt at wooing the Madiga community. The Madigas, also known as the left-hand group, comprise 45 per cent of the Dalit population in the State, but it has been their long-held contention that they must be given exclusive reservation, instead of being clubbed with other Scheduled Castes.

An interesting facet of the Madiga community is that they are staunch followers of Hinduism, with their own pantheon of deities, which is often in conflict with Brahminical Hinduism. Not many Madigas have been known to allow themselves to be persuaded by blandishments of proselytisers, and that is something that the Hindutva-driven BJP wishes to deploy in attracting the Dalit vote.

`All cannot be Ministers'

Those who were expected to get a berth in the Cabinet during the expansion last month have been told to stop sulking and fall in line. Mr. Naidu made this amply clear at Sunday's meeting with party workers.

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