Candidate for the lone Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sabha seat that goes for bypoll on September 22 is most likely to be announced by the Central leadership. The candidate could in most probabilities be an outsider the one who is close to the new central leadership of the party, it has been learnt.
The by-election was necessitated as the seat fell vacant after the appointment of senior BJP leader Kaptan Singh Solanki as the Governor of Haryana. The candidate who gets the ticket will continue for the remainder of Singh’s term till April 2, 2018.Though the State Election committee meeting held a meeting on Saturday night in this regard but the meet called in hurry could not came on any conclusion. The members of the committee suggested a few names that were listed and the meet was adjourned after that.
The Election Commission has already announced the schedule for by-poll to a vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh. The Madhya Pradesh Assembly’s Principal Secretary, Bhagwan Dev Israni has been appointed as the Returning Officer for the by-poll, an official release said.
As per the schedule, the notification for the by-poll was issued on September 4 and the last date for the filing of nomination papers is September 11. The scrutiny will be done on September 12 and the last date of withdrawal is September 15. If necessary, polling will be held on September 22 and the process of by-poll will be completed by September 26, the release added.
A senior party leader o condition of anonymity said there are not many suitable candidates within the state because most leaders either won assembly or lok Sabha elections. This might also pave the way for an outsider’s candidature. However, the issue has not yet been settled and a state leader may get the nomination if the CM has his way, he added.
BJP state spokesman and legislator from Narela assembly constituency of the state capital Vishwas Sarang said, “A decision on the party nomination is likely to be taken in next couple of days. I cannot comment on any other aspect of the decision.”The grapevine has it that in case the party wants to accommodate someone from the RSS, Ram Madhav, whose association with the Sangh dates back to his childhood, would be a probable candidate.
In case Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has a free hand, he may consider giving the ticket to former CM Kailash Joshi, who is currently being considered for a gubernatorial assignment. Others in consideration include Raghunandan Sharma, Ravinandan Singh and Jaibhan Singh Pawaiyya among others.