NEW DELHI: The BJP is set to field many of its Rajya Sabha MPs — regardless of whether their terms are ending before April or later — for the Lok Sabha polls from many “difficult” seats.
The party on Sunday named 14 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls including former Union minister RPN Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi — the only outgoing MP renominated by the party.
Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who represents Karnataka in Rajya Sabha, and BJP chief spokesperson Anil Baluni, the outgoing MP from Uttarakhand, have been replaced with fresh faces amid indications that they may contest the Lok Sabha polls.
The first among those who are likely to be fielded as candidates for LS seats is said to be the party’s Bihar strongman Sushil Kumar Modi. His name was missing in the list of 14, including two announced from Bihar for the Upper House.
BJP sources said Modi is being considered a candidate from the Bhagalpur Lok Sabha seat with a substantial presence of Vaishya voters. It is also seen as a BJP stronghold.
In the same way, three Union ministers — Railway and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and environment and climate change minister Bhupendra Yadav — are likely to be fielded in the LS polls.
At a party meeting, some Rajya Sabha MPs retiring this year were asked to suggest at least two LS seats each from where they could be comfortable to contest the elections.
“If this happens, two ministers of the Modi cabinet, both considered close to the PM, could be fielded from Banglore South and Central LS seats. They are Nirmala Sitharaman (Banglore South) and Rajiv Chandrashekhar (Bangalore Central),” said a BJP leader. These LS seats have a higher percentage of educated voters, among whom these two leaders are popular. The leader said that sitting MP from Bangalore, Tejasvi Surya, may test his electoral fate from another seat, leaving Banglore South for Nirmala Sitharaman.
Though, Ashwini Vaishnaw rejected the speculation, sources said that he may certainly be fielded either from Balasore in Odisha or any Brahmin-dominated LS seat in Rajasthan, which is Vaishnaw’s home state. In Odisha, he had served as an IAS officer.
It is also said that Bhupender Yadav is likely to be a candidate from a seat in Haryana while V Muraleedharan from Kerala’s Attingal LS seat and Dharmendra Pradhan from any Odisha LS seat. The BJP may also allot 25 per cent of the total 543 LS seats to new faces.
There is speculation that BJP national president JP Nadda would LS polls from a seat of his choice in Himachal Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh. His RS term ends this year.
On Sunday, BJP announced its candidates from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Prominent among them are Sudhanshu Trivedi and RPN Singh from Uttar Pradesh and former Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala from Haryana. RPN Singh, who comes from the politically important Kurmi caste, was in the Congress before joining the BJP.
Besides relying on new faces, many of whom have been working in the party organisation for long, the BJP has maintained a balance of caste equation in picking its candidates.
Elections for 56 RS seats across 15 states are scheduled to be held on February 27.