BJP announces candidates for Rajya Sabha elections
The BJP on Tuesday released a list of nine candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls. The party will field BJP president Nitin Nabin, who currently holds the Bankipur Assembly seat in Bihar, along with Shivesh Kumar, a former MLA who had unsuccessfully contested the Sasaram Lok Sabha seat in the general elections held two years ago, its former West Bengal unit chief Rahul Sinha and Chhattisgarh unit vice-president Laxmi Verma from the respective States.
The biennial polls to 37 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states that are falling vacant on different dates in April are set to be held on March 16. The counting of votes will take place the same day. The States where the seats are falling vacant are Maharashtra (seven), Odisha (four), Telangana (two), Tamil Nadu (six), Chhattisgarh (two), West Bengal (five), Assam (three), Haryana (two), Himachal Pradesh (one) and Bihar (five). The last date for filing nominations is March 5. Assam PWD Minister Jogen Mohan and MLA Terash Gowalla will be the saffron party’s candidates from the state for the election to the Upper House of Parliament. The BJP has also nominated its Odisha unit president, Manmohan Samal, and leader Sujeet Kumar, an incumbent Rajya Sabha MP, as candidates from the state for the upcoming polls.
BJP leader Shivesh Kumar will join the fray from Bihar and Sanjay Bhatia, a former Lok Sabha MP of the party, will be its candidate from Haryana. Kumar is the Bihar BJP’s general secretary.
The names of the candidates have been approved by the party’s central election committee, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said.
Nabin’s nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls from Bihar was expected since he was elected unopposed as the BJP’s 12th national president in January.
