The BJP on Sunday announced two lists of 18 candidates from various States for the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha necessitated by the retirement of 57 members. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been repeated as a nominee from Karnataka, as has Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal from Maharashtra. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s name was, however, not included in this list but with two more nominees yet to be named from Uttar Pradesh (from where the BJP is to get eight out of 11 seats) and one more from Madhya Pradesh, the jury is still out.
Interestingly, the party has announced the name of Dhananjay Mahadik as a third candidate from Maharashtra, where the party has numbers for two unopposed wins out of the six seats, and has decided to contest a third seat. State BJP general secretary Aditya Sahu has been fielded from Jharkhand.
From Uttar Pradesh, the BJP fielded its former State unit chief Laxmikant Bajpai, as well as Radha Mohan Agarwal who had given up his Assembly seat of Gorakhpur (urban) in favour of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the recently held Assembly polls. Other nominees include Surendra Singh Nagar (who has been repeated), Baburam Nishad, Darshana Singh and Sangeeta Yadav. The BJP fielded Dr. Kalpana Saini, chief of the Uttarakhand BJP backward class morcha, as its nominee from the single seat from Uttarakhand in the fray.
A surprise pick from Rajasthan was former State unit chief and party veteran Ghanshyam Tiwari, who had even hopped over to the Congress and is known to be inimical with regard to former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Krishan Lal Panwar has been fielded from Haryana.
Singh’s name missing
The BJP announced the names of Satish Chandra Dubey and Shambhu Sharan Patel from the two seats it likely to win for sure from Bihar, but the decision of its ally Janata Dal (United) to field Aneel Hegde and Kheru Mahto (JD-U’s Jharkhand unit chief) rather than current Union Minister R.C.P. Singh whose term is over as well, has created a piquant situation. Mr. Singh will have to quit his ministership failing to be a member of either House, and the strong signal of being out of favour sent to him by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Sources in the BJP said a second list for nominees in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand was likely to be out soon. “It is very much possible that the party may announce a candidate for the second seat in Haryana,” said a source.
Polls are to be held on June 10 if there is a contest for the seats, otherwise, with no contest, candidates will be declared elected unopposed after the last date of withdrawal of candidates, which is June 3.
