Bengaluru: In a surprise move, the BJP has decided to field two relatively unknown faces for the RS seats from the state. According to a decision taken by the party’s parliamentary committee, Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti will be the party candidates for the RS election from the state. The names of the two candidates were announced in a party statement in Delhi.

Kadadi hails from Belagavi, while Gasti is a resident of Raichur. The 54-year-old Eranna Kadadi started his active political career in 1989 and unsuccessfully contested the assembly election from Arambhavi constituency in 1994 on a BJP ticket. He had also served as the Belagavi district Panchayat president in 2010. Ashok Gasti is a lawyer by profession and former general secretary of the BJP’s OBC Cell. He is the former chairperson of the Backward Class Development Corporation.

June 9 is the last date for filing nominations.

Elections are scheduled June 19 for four seats from the state. The four seats are due to fall vacant on June 25 on the retirement of Rajeev Gowda and BK Hariprasad of Congress, Prabhakar Kore of BJP, and D Kupendra Reddy of JD(S).

Earlier BJP state core committee had recommended the names of bigwigs like Prabhakar Kore, Ramesh Katti, Prakash Shetty, etc. It was also speculated that Tejaswini Ananth Kumar or Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty would be the surprise candidates.

However, BJP national leadership took a surprise decision in which party opted for ordinary activists.