With the term of 14 of its MPs in the Rajya Sabha ending in April, there is a race among the probables within the BJP to secure a seat. January 28 is the last date for filing nominations and the election, if necessitated, will take place on February 27.
Owing to its impressive showing in the Assembly polls, the party will be a beneficiary in Rajasthan, where it stands to win one extra seat snatching it from the Congress whose Prabha Thakur presently occupies it. The term of its own MPs Om Mathur and Gyan Prakash Pilania is coming to an end. While Mathur is likely to get a re-nomination, former State president Mahesh Sharma is a claimant to the post falling vacant after Pilania’s term ends.
Similarly, the BJP’s strength in the Bihar Assembly would bring it an extra seat. Former Health Minister CP Thakur’s term will expire and BJP can win two out of the five seats going to fall vacant from the State. Thakur is likely to get re-nominated and national executive member RK Sinha is lobbying for the second seat.
The BJP, however, will lose the one seat each from Odisha and Himachal Pradesh, where its strength in the Assembly in not enough to secure a victory. The party is also unlikely to retain its seat in Jharkhand.
Party vice-president Balbir Punj is a member from Odisha and he will have to be accommodated from some other State if the party decides to bring him back to the Upper House.
Similarly, senior leader Shanta Kumar’s term as Rajya Sabha MP from Himachal is coming to an end and the ruling Congress is set to wrest that seat. Kumar is unlikely to get a seat from other State.
The JMM and the Congress are likely to field a joint candidate in Jharkhand and outgoing member Parimal Nathwani (of Reliance Industries) is likely to contest. This leaves BJP with no hopes in the tribal State.
The BJP’s chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, Prakash Javadekar, is likely to get re-nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. National Secretary Shyam Jaju and actress Kirron Kher are also claimants to RS berth from Maharashtra. Jaju is considered close to Narendra Modi and he might even be accommodated from another State.
The BJP will retain all three seats in Madhya Pradesh. While Maya Singh has been made a minister in the State Government, the term of former State president Prabhat Jha and senior leader Raghunandan Sharma is also expiring.
Considered his association with a section of RSS leaders, Jha is a strong claimant but an equally strong lobby in the party wants to deny him a second term. Sharma is also a claimant for second term. Choudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi, the former deputy leader of Congress in State Assembly, who crossed over to the BJP during a no-trust vote, is also a likely candidate.
The BJP will retain all three seats in Gujarat and one from Chhattisgarh. Party spokesman Nirmala Sitharaman, Meenakshi lekhi, general secretary Murlidhar Rao, actress Hema Malini and a few others are also looking for a RS seat.