l Ganesh would be Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh after Najma Heptulla vacated it following her appointment as Governor of Manipur.
BJP Madhya Pradesh media in-charge lokendra Parashar informed that the party president Amit Shah has announced Ganesh’s candidature in New Delhi on Tuesday.
71 year old Ganesh is a former RSS Pracharak besides being BJP state president of Tamil Nadu and is a close confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Nominations for the vacant seat of the upper house began on Monday and the by-poll for the same if necessitated would be held on October 17.
The process for filing nominations for this vacant seat of upper house from the state began on Monday and would come to an end on October 3. The scrutiny of nominations will be done on October 4, and the last date for the withdrawal of candidature is October 6, according to the Election Commission. Polling if necessitated will take place from 9 am to 4 pm on October 17 and counting of votes will take place soon after, the Commission said.
The by-polls were necessitated after Heptulla resigned from the Rajya Sabha on August 20 to take on the responsibilities of the governor's office. The term of her office would have otherwise ended on April 2, 2018.
Heptulla, who was the Union Minority Affairs Minister, had resigned just days after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi changed his cabinet ministers in July. The 76-year-old Heptulla was then announced as Governor of Manipur.