Four candidates of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one from the Congress on Monday filed their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections slated to be held on March 23.
BJP leaders Dharmendra Pradhan, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Ajay Pratap Singh and Kailash Soni filed nominations in the Vidhan Sabha premises here. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state BJP chief Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan, the party's organisation General Secretary Suhas Bhagat, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra and other leaders were present.
Pradhan and Gehlot are Union ministers while Singh and Soni are BJP office-bearers. Congress leader and former state minister Rajmani Patel filed his nomination in afternoon. leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh, state Congress chief Arun Yadav and other leaders were present. Nomination process for electing five Rajya Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh commenced on March 5 with the issuance of notification by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Today was the last day for filing nominations today. Scrutiny would be conducted on March 13 and candidate can give notice of withdrawal by 3 pm on March 15. In case the election is necessary, it would be conducted on March 23 from 9 am to 4 pm. Counting would be held on the same day. The election has been necessitated as five seats in Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh would be rendered vacant after the tenure of Thawar Chand Gehlot, la Ganesan, Prakash Javadekar, Meghraj Jain from BJP and Satyavrat Chaturvedi of Congress ends on April 2.
Since no other candidate is expected to file nomination, announcement of unopposed election is likely to be made on March 15 after the deadline for withdrawal ends.