NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday re-nominated its three prominent leaders — Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan and party chief JP Nadda, among 14 candidates, for the Rajya Sabha polls.
Among the 14 party candidates for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections, the prominent names are Vaishnaw (Odisha), Nadda (Gujarat), Murugan (MP) and Ashok Chavan, who joined the saffron camp on Tuesday from Maharashtra and Govindbhai Dholakia, who donated `11 crore to the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
The biennial elections to fill 56 seats in Rajya Sabha will be held on February 27 and last date for filing nominations is on February 15.
As per the second official party list, Nadda, who was earlier nominated to RS from his home state Himachal Pradesh, Dholakia, Mayankbhai Nayak and Dr Jashvantsinh Salamsinh Parmar from Gujarat, and Ashok Chavan, Medha Kulkarni and Dr Ajit Gopchhade from Maharashtra have been fielded. In the first list, the BJP re-nominated Vaishnaw with the support of ruling BJD from Odisha while Dr L Murugan, Umesh Nath Maharaj, Maya Naroliya and Bansilal Gurjar were nominated from Madhya Pradesh, where the saffron party retained power in the recent assembly elections.
Speculation was rife about the railway minister and the BJP chief (whose RS terms will end this month and next) that they would be fielded for Lok Sabha seats either from Odisha and Himachal Pradesh, respectively. At present, Nadda is a Rajya Sabha member from Himachal Pradesh but the BJP had to re-nominate him from Gujarat because it did not have sufficient number of votes in Himachal. This would be his the third RS term in a row.
Many senior BJP leaders, whose names were expected in the list for Rajya Sabha polls, missed it. Union ministers and outgoing RS members Mansukh Mandaviya and Parshottam Rupala, both from Gujarat, and Narayan Rane from Maharashtra have not been renominated.
Shastri’s grandson quits cong, joins BJP
Former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s grandson Vibhakar Shastri on Wednesday joined the BJP and announced leaving the Congress. Vibhakar Shastri joined the BJP in Lucknow in the presence of party state president Bhupinder Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak. Vibhakar Shastri had unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha polls in the past from Fatehpur Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.