BJP Names 11 Candidates For Rajya Sabha Polls In 5 States
The names of Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian did not figure in the list of 11 candidates released on Thursday.
The term of both the ministers in the Upper House is ending on June 21. The Rajya Sabha term of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri is also ending in November.
While Bittu is a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan, Kurian represents Madhya Pradesh in the House. With these two ministers not being renominated and Harsh Malhotra recently appointed as BJP president for Delhi, speculations are rife about an imminent Cabinet reshuffle.
Tarun Chugh, BJP national general secretary, is from Punjab and is currently in charge of the party affairs in Jammu and Kashmir.
Tarun Chugh and Satish Poonia are BJP nominees for Rajya Sabha polls from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively.
At present, Bittu is an Upper House MP from Rajasthan and Kurian represents Madhya Pradesh. Poonia, former Rajasthan BJP president, is the party's in-charge for Haryana. He had lost the last assembly election in Rajasthan in 2023.
Congress leader Pawan Khera is set to make his Rajya Sabha debut. Khera and Mansoor Ali Khan have been nominated from Karnataka, along with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge for yet another term. Earlier, reports suggested the high command was in favour of former CM Siddaramaiah enter central politics via Rajya Sabha.
But the offer was turned down.
Other names in the list for Rajya Sabha bye-elections include Meenakshi Natarajan from Madhya Pradesh, Neeraj Dangi from Rajasthan, Praveen Chakravarty from Tamil Nadu and Pranav Jha from Jharkhand.
The Rajya Sabha polls for 24 seats in 10 states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Manipur, will be held on June 18. Bypoll to the Upper House for one seat each in Maharastra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha will also be conducted the same day.
The last date for filing of nominations is June 8.
Khera was recently in news for his virtual face-off with Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma after he accused his wife of holding foreign assets and passports.
Assam Police also visited Khera’s residence in New Delhi on April 7, though he was not present there at the time.
The BJP's central election committee, which released the names of a total of 11 candidates for Rajya Sabha polls in five states, fielded Debashish Samantaray as its candidate from Odisha.
Samantaray had recently joined the BJP, quitting the BJD. He was a Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha before he quit the party and resigned from the Upper House.
Rajubhai Shukla, Mukeshbhai Rathwa, Mansingh Parmar and Jitendra Meghjibhai Kanzariya will contest as BJP candidates from Gujarat, while Rajneesh Agrawal will join the fray from Madhya Pradesh. Alka Gurjar, BJP national secretary and party's co-in-charge for Delhi, will contest from Rajasthan.
The party has fielded its Manipur president A Sharda Devi as its candidate from the state.
This means, N Biren Singh was either not interested or the the high command did not try any experiment of bringing him to Delhi.
This could also mean; he may still be in race for the chief minister's post; he was compelled to resign in 2025.
Sharda Devi was Manipur BJP's first woman president; will Biren now bargain for party presidentship ?
How much these arrangements suit incumbent chief minister Y Khemchand Singh and BJP's election plans for March 2027 remain to be seen.
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| Biren Singh and Sharda Devi |
The BJP also fielded senior party leader Tai Tagak from Arunachal Pradesh.
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