The BJP on Monday announced its nominees for six Rajya Sabha seats, including Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu from Andhra Pradesh, party vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe from Maharashtra and journalist M.J. Akbar from Madhya Pradesh.
The party is in a position to win four of these seats without any help from other parties (two seats from Maharashtra, one from Madhya Pradesh and one from Uttar Pradesh). Mr. Prabhu’s candidature from Andhra Pradesh will require support from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Jharkhand State unit treasurer Mahesh Poddar, who has been nominated from that State, will need at least nine votes from other parties to get elected.
“In Jharkhand, each candidate will require 28 votes to win. The BJP with 47 votes is in a position to secure one seat without any trouble. Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has been nominated for that seat. For the second seat, they have 19 votes left, and will require nine more votes from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) or some second preference votes,” said a senior BJP leader.
“Hemant Soren, JMM leader and former Chief Minister had met the Congress high command for support for their party’s candidate, but we are not sure that a deal has been struck. Therefore we are hoping that our candidate will get second preference votes at least from that party,” said the office-bearer in the national team.
Others who have been nominated include Vikas Mahatme, a Maharashtra-based ophthalmologist and a prominent representative of the Dhangar or shepherd community in the State.
The Dhangar community has been agitating for Scheduled Tribe status and party sources said the move to nominate Dr. Mahatme was a signal from the BJP that it was serious on the issue.
The party nominated former State unit vice-president Shiv Pratap Shukla from its lone seat in Uttar Pradesh. This is considered a signal to the Brahmin community in the State that the BJP is anxious about their votes after appointing a non-Yadav OBC, Keshav Prasad Maurya, as State unit president.
