The BJP on Sunday announced candidates for 12 Rajya Sabha seats where it is in a winning position, throwing up some surprises and leaving at least four seats in suspense before the May 31 deadline for nomination.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has been nominated from Rajasthan. His deputy Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will seek election from Jharkhand. Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will get a full six-year term from Karnataka. Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal has been nominated from Maharashtra. Union Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh has been re-nominated from Haryana.
The term of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who represents Haryana, will also end in August (like Mr. Birendra Singh’s), but he has not been included in the list released on Sunday for the June 11 elections. “There are, as of now, two more seats in Maharashtra to be decided, one seat each from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, and one possible seat from Andhra Pradesh if the Telugu Desam Party transfers some votes to us,” said a senior office-bearer of the BJP.
The surprises on the list include the former BJP Bihar chief, Gopal Narayan Singh, as senior leader Sushil Modi was the frontrunner for a seat in Delhi. Anil Madhav Dave has been re-nominated from Madhya Pradesh. He has been heading important parliamentary committees (including a select committee on amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act). BJP general secretary and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Om Mathur has been fielded in Rajasthan.
All four seats from Rajasthan are in the BJP’s quota. Harsh Vardhan Singh and Ram Kumar Verma have also been nominated from the State. Ram Vichar Netam has been nominated from Chhattisgarh, and Purushottam Rupala has been nominated from Gujarat for the residual term of the seat held by Praveen Rashtrapal of the Congress who died recently. The BJP has just two days to announce candidates for the seats lying vacant. A total of 56 seats go to the polls.
| State | Name of Candidate |
|---|---|
| Rajasthan | M. Venkaiah Naidu |
| Rajasthan | Om Prakash Mathur |
| Rajasthan | Harsh Vardhan Singh |
| Rajasthan | Ram Kumar Verma |
| Haryana | Chaudhary Birender Singh |
| Maharashtra | Piyush Goyal |
| Karnataka | Nirmala Sitharaman |
| Jharkhand | Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi |
| Gujarat | Purushottann Rupala |
| Madhya Pradesh | Anil Madhav Dave |
| Chhattisgarh | Ramvichar Netam |
| Bihar | Gopal Narayan Singh |
