The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) renominated to Rajya Sabha all the eight union ministers including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar.
Apart from the ministers, the party also renominated its general secretary and key stratagist Bhupender Yadav from Rajasthan.
While Jaitley has been nominated as a candidate for the upper House from Uttar Pradesh, Javadekar has been shifted to his home state Maharashtra from Madhya Pradesh. Jaitley is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has been shifted to Madhya Pradesh from Bihar.
Apart from these three, six others including Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, will contest the March 23 Rajya Sabha polls from the states which they are currently representing in the House.
The party on Wednesday announced two lists of nine candidates after the Central Election Committee gave its approval.
Prasad has been renominated from Bihar while Gehlot from native Madhya Pradesh. Health Minister J.P. Nadda has been renominated from Himachal Pradesh.
Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala and Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh Bhai Mandaviya have been renominated from Gujarat.
All these eight ministers of the Modi Cabinet are retiring from the Rajya Sabha.
Jaya Bachchan to be SP candidate
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party has nominated actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
“Jaya Bachchan was consistently loyal to the Samajwadi Party, its system and hierarchy,” Rajya Sabha MP and former party leader Amar Singh said.
In 2012, Jaya Bachchan was re-elected for a third term as Rajya Sabha member on an SP ticket.
Voting to elect 58 members to the Rajya Sabha from different states will take place on March 23. The last date for filing nominations is March 12. March 15 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature.
There are 10 vacancies from Uttar Pradesh, six each from Bihar and Maharashtra, five each from Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, four each from Gujarat and Karnataka, three each from Odisha, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, two from Jharkhand and one each from Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
(Courtesy: nerve.in)