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The BJP and the Congress have announced lists of 18 and 12 candidates respectively for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
The SP’s decision to field Jaya Bachchan as the party’s candidate from the single seat it is likely to win led to the resignation of party veteran Naresh Agarwal from the party. Agarwal joined the BJP on Monday.
In Gujarat, the Congress list has created division among leaders. While the party’s Dalit face PK Valera filed his nomination as an independent candidate, Sonal Patel, who heads the State’s Mahila Congress, offered to resign and shot off a letter to the national president of the party, citing personal reasons to be relieved from the post.
Fifty-eight vacancies will be filled after the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, scheduled for March 23.
Uttar Pradesh will have 10 vacancies. The BJP-led alliance will get eight seats and the SP-Congress-BSP alliance will bag two. While SP has nominated Bachchan, the BSP has nominated Bhimrao Ambedkar to the post.
Bihar vacancies
In Bihar, there are six vacancies. Four posts are likely to go the NDA while the Congress and the RJS are likely to get one seat each.
“Congress President Rahul Gandhi has approved the proposal for the candidature of Akhilesh Prasad Singh from Bihar and Lekhram Sahu from Chhattisgarh for the Rajya Sabha election,” AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes said in a release on Monday.
The Congress had the names of 10 of its candidates on Sunday that excluded most of its big names in the Rajya Sabha, including Rajeev Shukla and Satyavrat Chaturvedi. Monday was the last day for filing nominations.
Meanwhile, in Gujarat, the BJP fielded three candidates on its mandate to counter a possible move by the Congress.
The Congress fielded two candidates — tribal leader Naran Rathwa and State unit spokesperson Amee Yajnik. The BJP had nominated sitting Rajya Sabha MPs and Union Ministers Parshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya.
“As part of the political strategy to counter the Congress’ disruptive practices, we have fielded our third candidate, Kiritsinh Rana. Looking at the selection of the candidates and the in-fighting that has surfaced afterwards, it is clear that there is a feeling of discontent among Congress members from their central leadership. This shows that the Congress votes will get divided,” said Gujarat Deputy CM Nitin Patel.
Former Mahila Morcha leader Saroj Pande is the BJP nominee from Chhattisgarh. From Uttarakhand, Anil Baluni will fight while from Rajasthan, Kirori Lal Meena, who rejoined the BJP, and Madan Lal Saini were given ticket. Former Maharashtra Congress leader Narayan Rane and the BJP’s Kerala face V Muralidharan are the the BJP candidates from Maharashtra. BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao and industrialist Rajeev Chandrashekhar got nominations from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.
The Congress has fielded L Hanumanthaiah, Syed Naseer Hussain and GC Chandrasekhar from Karnataka. Chandrasekhar will win only if he manages to get a section of JD(S) votes.
West Bengal candidate
Abhishek Manu Singhvi is the party’s candidate from West Bengal and he will win as the Trinamool Congress has decided to support him.
Senior journalist Kumar Ketkar is the Congress candidate from Maharashtra.
Amee Yajnik and Naranbhai Rathwa are the candidates from Gujarat.
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