BJP announces first list of 16 candidates for Rajya Sabha poll -Nirmala Goyal gets included

By Our Special Correspondent

The BJP, Congress, JDU and BJD on Sunday announced candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled to take place on June 10, featuring big names such as Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, and P Chidambaram.

Goyal, who is the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, has been fielded from Maharashtra and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman from Karnataka. The elections for 52 Rajya Sabha seats are scheduled to be held on June 10 in 15 states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana and Maharashtra.

The party announced the names of two candidates each from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Bihar and one candidate each from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Haryana. Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, whose tenures are ending, did not feature in the BJP’s first list of candidates.

The BJP named 14 candidates apart from Sitharaman and Goyal and the Congress 10, including Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. The lists on Sunday were announced after days of deliberations in each camp, and some senior leaders switching parties.

The party has fielded former MLA Krishnalal Panwar and MP Kavita Patidar from Haryana. Actor Jaggesh, who has become a politician, is the second person nominated by the party from Karnataka. Along with Goyal, Anil Deshmukh Bonde is the second nominee from Maharashtra, while Ghanshyam Tiwari from Rajasthan entered the ring. Interestingly, Tiwari is a fierce critic of former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who has an unpleasant equation with her BJP central leadership.

The party faced a backlash last week when senior party leader and prominent lawyer Kapil Sibal filed his nomination as an independent candidate, which was backed by the Samajwadi Party on May 25. The BJP sought to maintain social balance with members of all castes, including the OBC. , SC, ST in the first list.

Shambhu Patel, a nominee from Bihar, belongs to the most backward caste Dhanukra, while Satish Chandra Dubey, a nominee from the state, is a Brahmin. The last date for filing nominations is May 31. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is June 3.