BJP Rajya Sabha MP Krishan Lal Panwar, who won the Assembly election from Israna Constituency in Panipat district on Monday resigned from the Upper House. Panwar, a former minister and six-time MLA and prominent Dalit face of the saffron party, was specially picked up by the BJP to contest October 5 election polls from Israna (Reserved) assembly segment. He submitted his resignation to Jagdeep Dhankar, Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman, in New Delhi.

Panwar is a front-runner for a ministerial berth in the new Council of Ministers to be sworn in at Panchkula on October 17. He was a minister in the first BJP Government headed by Manohar Lal Khattar from 2014 to 19. He was later sent to Rajya Sabha by the BJP in 2022 in a bid to woo the crucial Dalit vote bank. With the resignation of Panwar from Rajya Sabha, lobbying has picked up among senior BJP leaders for nomination to the Upper House from Haryana. Out of five Rajya Sabha MPs, the BJP has three members—Subhash Barala, Ram Chander Jangra and Kiran Chaudhry. An Independent MP Kartikeya was also elected with the support of the BJP.

Meanwhile, following the Bishnoi family’s first electoral defeat in their Adampur stronghold, BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi is reportedly lobbying for a Rajya Sabha nomination. Bishnoi’s son, Bhavya Bishnoi, suffered a narrow defeat in Adampur, losing to Congress candidate Chander Prakash by just 1,268 votes. The loss marked the end of a long-standing Bishnoi family legacy, which had won the Adampur seat consecutively since 1968, securing 16 election victories in a row.