BENGALURU: A sustained campaign in the social media against Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu’s renomination by BJP as the party’s nominee from Karnataka for next month’s polls to Rajya Sabha evidently forced the hand of senior leaders to field him as a candidate from Rajasthan.

Though BJP circles were abuzz with reports that the veteran leader would return to Rajya Sabha for fourth consecutive term from Karnataka, a campaign with a catchy title “Venkaiah Sakaiah” proved a big hit in the social media.

As the campaign gathered momentum, with thousands opposing his candidature as well as his contribution to the state during his three terms spread over 18 years, some local leaders too voiced their opinion against another term from Karnataka.

Soon, several pro-Kannada organisations held protests in Bengaluru opposing Mr Venkaiah Naidu's candidature while leaders of the ruling Congress criticized the BJP for promoting “outsiders” rather than pick local leaders, sources in the party told DC. Thus, senior BJP leaders in New Delhi were forced to field Union minister of state for commerce and industry Nirmala Sitharaman instead of Mr Naidu from Karnataka.

Meanwhile, a senior BJP leader told this newspaper that central leaders instructed the state unit not to discuss about Rajya Sabha polls in the meeting of the core committee. The state unit was told to send one line resolution authorizing the central election committee to take the final call on the party’s nominee.

Accordingly, the core committee did discuss about former minister V Somanna's candidature for next month’s elections to the Legislative Council, but not about Mr Naidu's renomination. “The change of candidate was not done out of fear of losing the polls but central leaders did not want to cause much embarrassment for Mr Naidu, a former BJP national president,” sources added.

The leader said the party did not want to go against sentiments of people ahead of polls to the Legislative Assembly in 2018. The BJP leaders are keen to tread cautiously over the next 24 months as part of their strategy to return to power in 2018, he added.