(22:06)
New Delhi, March 11
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday announced the names of 18 candidates, including former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, for the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha from nine states.
The announcement came after the meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee.
BJP General Secretary Saroj Pandey will contest from Chhattisgarh, the party's Media Cell Convenor Anil Baluni from Uttarakhand, and Lt General D.P. Vats (retd) from Haryana.
Independent Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar will be the BJP candidate from Karnataka. In case he wins, it will be his second term in the Rajya Sabha. Earlier, he was elected to the upper house as an Independent.
The party has nominated tribal leader Sameer Uranv to contest the March 23 Rajya Sabha polls from Jharkhand.
The highest number of seven candidates -- Ashok Bhajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, G.V.L. Narsimha Rao and Harnath Singh Yadav -- will contest from Uttar Pradesh.
Madan Lal Saini and Kirori Lal Meena have been fielded from Rajasthan while Narayan Rane and V. Muraleedharan (Kerala) will contest from Maharashtra.
Ajay Pratap Singh and Kailash Soni will contest from Madhya Pradesh.
On Wednesday, the BJP had renominated to the Rajya Sabha all eight Union Ministers, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, apart from its General Secretary and key strategist Bhupender Yadav from Rajasthan.
While Jaitley was nominated from Uttar Pradesh, Javadekar was shifted to his home state Maharashtra from Madhya Pradesh. Jaitley is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was shifted to Madhya Pradesh from Bihar.
Voting to elect 58 members to the Rajya Sabha from different states will take place on March 23. The last date for filing nominations is March 12. March 15 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature.
There are 10 vacancies from Uttar Pradesh, six each from Bihar and Maharashtra, five each from Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, four each from Gujarat and Karnataka, three each from Odisha, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, two from Jharkhand and one each from Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Singhvi, Ketkar among 10 Congress candidates for Rajya Sabha polls
The Congress on Sunday announced names of 10 candidates for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections in seven states, including Abhishek Manu Singhvi from West Bengal and senior journalist Kumar Ketkar from Maharashtra.
Congress President approved the list for the the March 23 Rajya Sabha polls.
Former Union Minister Naranbhai Rathwa, who represented Chhota Udaipur Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat for the five terms, was nominated along with Congress leader and prominent lawyer Amee Yajnik from Gujarat.
Former Rajya Sabha member Dhiraj Prasad Sahu was nominated as Congress candidate from Jharkhand. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in June 2009 and was against re-elected in 2010.
The party nominated three candidates from Karnataka, including Dalit poet L. Hanumanthaiah and Vokkalinga leader G.C. Chandrasekhar. The party opted for Syed Naseer Hussain as its third candidate.
The ruling Congress in Karnataka can easily win two seats and meets few extra votes for the third seat.
Former Minister and Congress leader Rajmani Patel will contest from Madhya Pradesh. Five Rajya Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh are completing their terms in April 2018. Congress spokesperson Satyavrat Chaturvedi, who is among the five retiring members, could not make to the list.
Ketkar has been nominated from Maharashtra and Porika Balram Naik from Telangana.
The party has nominated senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi from West Bengal. Elections to the five Rajya Sabha seats has been necessiated as the terms of Kunal Ghosh, Bibek Gupta and Nadimul Haque of the Trinamool Congress and Tapan Sen of Communist Party of India-Marxist will end on April 2.
The TMC has already its four candidats and its leader Mamta Banerjee has openly said her party would support Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha polls.
