BJP announces 18 candidates, Cong 10 for Rajya Sabha poll

New Delhi, March 11

With an eye on the upcoming state polls, the BJP today announced its 18 candidates, while the Congress announced the names of 10 candidates for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections in seven states on March 23. 

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, BJP general secretaries Anil Jain and Saroj Pandey, its spokespersons Anil Baluni and GVL Narasimha Rao and entrepreneur Rajeev Chandrasekhar are among the saffron party's candidates.

Rane had recently quit the Congress to join the BJP and has been rewarded with a ticket for the Upper House from Maharashtra. The BJP has opted for Kirori Lal Meena, an influential caste leader, as its candidate from the state where it is perceived to be facing anti-incumbency against the Vasundhara Raje government.

Former Kerala BJP chief V Muralidharan will be its second candidate from Maharashtra. Saroj Pandey, who had lost the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, has been fielded from Chhattisgarh, Madan Lal Saini from Rajasthan, Lt Gen D P Vats (retd) from Haryana, Kailash Soni and Ajay Pratap Singh from Madhya Pradesh, Chandrasekhar from Karnataka and Sameer Oraon from Jharkhand.

From Uttar Pradesh, where the party is set to win eight of the 10 seats going to the polls, its other candidates are Ashok Bajpai, who had quit the SP to join the BJP, former farmers cell chief Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam and Harnath Singh Yadav, besides Jain and Rao.

The name of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, besides a number of other Union ministers had figured in the first list of candidates announced on March 7.

The Congress' list has Abhishek Manu Singhvi from West Bengal and senior journalist Kumar Ketkar from Maharashtra. The TMC has already its four candidats and its leader Mamta Banerjee has openly said her party would support Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha poll.   

Former Union Minister Naranbhai Rathwa, who represented Chhota Udaipur Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat for the five terms, was nominated along with Congress leader and prominent lawyer Amee Yajnik from Gujarat.

Former Rajya Sabha member Dhiraj Prasad Sahu was nominated as Congress candidate from Jharkhand. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in June 2009 and was against re-elected in 2010. 

The party nominated three candidates from Karnataka, including Dalit poet L Hanumanthaiah and Vokkalinga leader GC Chandrasekhar. The party opted for Syed Naseer Hussain as its third candidate. The ruling Congress in Karnataka can easily win two seats and meets few extra votes for the third seat. 

Former Minister and Congress leader Rajmani Patel will contest from Madhya Pradesh. Ketkar has been nominated from Maharashtra and Porika Balram Naik from Telangana.  — Agencies

Meena's 'ghar wapsi'

   Making his 'ghar wapsi' after about 10 years, National People's Party patron Dr Kirori Lal Meena rejoined the BJP and merged his NPP in the saffron party in the presence of CM Vasundhara Raje and state party president Ashok Parnami in Jaipur on Sunday. Apart from Meena, three other NPP MLAs, including his wife Golma Devi (Rajgarh-Laxmangarh seat) and Geeta Verma (Sikrai), also joined the BJP.  OC