Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah is “very keen” on sending Sonia Gandhi to the Rajya Sabha from the state when three seats will fall vacant in April next year as there is a feeling that the former Congress chief is unlikely to contest the Lok Sabha polls due to health issues.

“The chief minister is very keen on getting Sonia madam to contest from Karnataka since we have enough numbers to elect three Rajya Sabha members from here,” a state Congress functionary told The Telegraph on Tuesday.

The terms of Syed Nasser Hussain, L. Hanumanthaiah (both from the Congress) and minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrashekar of the BJP will end on April 2. With 135 seats in the Assembly, the Congress can fill all three vacancies.

A former Lok Sabha member from Bellary in the north of the state, Sonia is no stranger to Karnataka’s electoral battlefield. In the high-profile contest from Bellary in 1999, Sonia had trounced the BJP’s Sushma Swaraj by over 56,000 votes.

But with health coming in the way of the physical strain of another Lok Sabha contest, the party has been abuzz with talks about the chief minister’s proposal that Sonia should seek the Rajya Sabha route to Parliament.

Siddaramaiah had spoken to Sonia about contesting for the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka when she was in the city last week for the Opposition summit. But she is yet to communicate her decision to the party, said the Congress functionary who declined to be named.

He said AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, party general secretary K.C. Venugopal and general secretary in charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala would have to convince Sonia to enter the Rajya Sabha from the state.

“Since these decisions are taken at the highest level, I personally don’t know if the national leadership has spoken to her after the Opposition summit, and, if so, what is her response,” said the functionary.

Being a member of either House of Parliament is crucial for Sonia to retain 10, Janpath, her official accommodation in Delhi.

Sonia is currently the only member of Parliament from the Nehru-Gandhi family. Rahul, who represented Wayanad in neighbouring Kerala in the Lok Sabha, was disqualified following his conviction in a defamation case by a Surat court over his remark on the Modi surname made in Kolar near here during the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“It need not be mentioned that our entire Congress party will welcome her candidature from Karnataka, just like we did when she decided to contest from Bellary, or when Indira Gandhi contested from Chikmagalur (in 1978). I hope she makes a positive decision,” he added.

Karnataka has been a lucky charm for the family since Indira Gandhi contested from Chikmagalur to resurrect her political career in 1978 during the post-Emergency period. Congress member D.B. Chandregowda had then vacated the seat, thus necessitating a byelection in which she defeated Veerendra Patil of the Janata Party by over 77,000 votes.