NEW DELHI: With an objective to groom next generation of leadership, the BJP has opted for fresh faces in the first two lists of nominees for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections. Maintaining the stress of new faces, the BJP in the second list of five candidates has fielded young leaders, which included Sumer Singh Solanki, who is apparently rewarded for cleanliness works in Madhya Pradesh. Solanki will be the second candidate from the BJP in MP. The BJP will bank on rebel Congress MLAs and cross-voting to help Solanki win the elections.
Former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia will be the first candidate in the Rajya Sabha election.
In Bihar, the BJP had nominated Vivek Thakur, son of the party veteran C P Thakur, with the aim to groom the young leadership in the electorally significant Bhumihar caste group in the state. The BJP has also fielded OBC leader Ramchandra Jhangda from Haryana for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections. Incidentally, the BJP had denied nomination to Jhangda in the 2019 state Assembly elections. The BJP is apparently seeking to placate Jhangda by fielding him in the Rajya Sabha polls to win back the support base among the OBC. Jhangda had purportedly remarked after the Haryana verdict that if he had been given party ticket in the Assembly elections the BJP wouldn’t have needed support of the Dushyant Choutala led JJP.
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The BJP has also fielded Dushyant Gautam, the Dalit leader, from Haryana for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections. The BJP has also fielded Indu Goswami from Himachal Pradesh. For the lone seat, the BJP will wrest the seat being vacated by Viplov Thakur of the Congress. Goswami has grown in the BJP in the state after her stint in the youth wing of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Bhagwat Karad is another BJP nominee for the Rajya Sabha polls from Maharashtra.
Congress lists out its Rajya Sabha picks
The Congress on Thursday named AICC general secretary KC Vernugopal and Rajasthan Congress general secretary Neeraj Dangi as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha from the state. Noted lawyer KTS Tulsi and Phulo Devi Netam are Chhattisgarh candidates while Shahzada Anwar is Jharkhand candidate. The party nominated senior leader DIgvijaya Singh and Phool Singh Barariya from MP. From Maharashtra, the party nominated Rajiv Satav.