Bangalore, March 19
Political scene in Karnataka is threatening to slip into chaos once again with disgruntled BJP leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa today fielding a rebel candidate for the March 30 Rajya Sabha poll from Karnataka.

Basavaraj Patil Sedam, a BJP veteran from Karnataka, and R Ramakrishna, convener of the BJP’s national election cell, today filed their nominations for the poll as the party’s official candidates.

Four Karnataka seats are falling vacant in the Rajya Sabha with two of the four outgoing MPs claiming affiliation to the BJP, one to the Congress and one an Independent MP. The BJP is likely to win two seats again while the Congress may retain the seat it now has.

For the remaining vacancy, sitting Independent MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a businessman and entrepreneur, filed his papers for a second term here today.

The Congress nominee from Karnataka is Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rahaman Khan, who also filed his papers today.

BJ Puttaswamy, who served as the political secretary to the CM while Yeddyurappa was at the helm and continued in the post under his successor DV Sadananda Gowda. Now he has queered the pitch for the BJP. He filed his papers and then claimed that he was the “third candidate of the BJP”.

“I have filed nomination as the third candidate of the BJP,” he told reporters. Asked if he filed the papers on the direction of the party, Puttaswamy, a Yeddyurappa loyalist, said, “I have filed the nomination as per law with signatures of 10 MLAs.” He was later suspended from the BJP because of this step.