Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vice-president Prabhat Jha and former Union Minister Satyanarayan Jatia filed nomination papers for two of the three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh here on Monday on the Vidhan Sabha premises, if necessitated election for these seats would be held on February 7.
Jha and Jatiya filed papers before the returning officer Raj Kumar Pandey in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar and others of the State. On the occasion, Chouhan said the BJP would fight the coming lok Sabha polls with the target of notching all the 29 seats under its 'Mission 29' polls. "Corruption, price rise, internal security and development would be the poll planks for the," he said.
The notification for the biennial polls to 55 Rajya Sabha seats in 16 States was issued on January 21. These include three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh. Going by their respective numerical strength in the state legislature, of the three Rajya Sabha seats from the State which would fall vacant this year, two should go to the BJP and one to the Opposition Congress.
Jha had earlier served as state BJP president. The party has kept caste equations in mind while assigning one seat to general and another to a candidate of scheduled caste category. Jha is a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha and is headed for a second term in the Upper House. Nominations can be filed till January 28 while scrutiny will take place on January 29. last date of withdrawal is January 31. If necessary, polling and counting of votes will take place on February 7. The election process would conclude February 10. The deadline for filing nominations is 3 pm on Tuesday.