The BJP has decided to field general secretaries Anil Jain and Saroj Pandey as well its national media in charge Anil Baluni and party’s familiar face on television G V l Narasimha Rao among others as candidates for the March 23 Rajya Sabha biennial elections.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane has also been named for the RS berth.
Also, the party has decided to award a RS seat to former Rajasthan Minister Kirori lal Meena, who returned to the party on Saturday after several years of leading his own outfit. Meena’s nomination to RS sends clear message that the BJP is making all out efforts to woo his caste men in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Madan lal Saini will be the second BJP candidate from Rajasthan.
The BJP will field Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Dr Anil Jain, GVl Narsimha Rao, and Harnath Singh Yadav from Uttar Pradesh, while Baluni will make his RS debut from Uttarakhand.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Sameer Urnav will represent Karnataka while Ajay Pratap Singh and Kailash Sonil are from Madhya Pradesh.
General (Retd) DP Vats will represent Haryana in RS polls as BJP nominee while Rane and V Muralidharna will be the party's nominees from Maharashtra. Saroj Pandey will represent BJP from Chhattisgarh.
Congress RS nominee from Maharashtra is Kumar Ketkar.