Rane in BJP’s list of 18 for RS polls, Congress picks 10
NEW DELHI: The BJP named on Sunday 18 candidates, including former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane, for the March 23 biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha, while the opposition Congress announced a list of 10 that has party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Besides former Congress stalwart Rane, the BJP nominated industrialist-politician Rajeev Chandrashekhar from Karnataka and Kirori Lal Meena, the Rajasthan leader who returned to the party after a decade on Sunday. The last date for filing of nomination papers is Monday.
The BJP announced 15 more candidates, including its general secretary Saroj Pandey from Chhattisgarh, Anil Jain from Uttar Pradesh and spokespersons Anil Baluni and GVL Narsimha Rao from Uttarakhand and UP respectively.
The party had named eight candidates, including seven Union ministers, on its first list on March 7.
Chandrashekhar is the BJPled National Democratic Alliance’s vice chairman in Kerala. Rane is fielded from Maharashtra along with the BJP’s former Kerala unit chief V Muralidharan.
The 66-year-old Meena is a five-time MLA who quit the party in 2008 to join the National People’s Party (NPP), an outfit founded by former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma.
Among those on Sunday’s list are Madan Lal Saini, a former leader of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, from Rajasthan and Ashok Bajpai, Vijaypal Singh Tomar, Kamat Kardam and Sakaldeep Rajbhar and Harnath Singh Yadav from UP.
Bajpai is a founding member of the Samajwadi Party who switched sides in 2017. Tomar is former president of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha, and Kardam is a former MLA who unsuccessfully contested for mayor’s post in Meerut.
Ajay Pratap Singh and Kailash Soni are candidates from Madhya Pradesh. The party had on March 7 announced names of Union ministers Thawarchand Gehlot and Dharmendra Pradhan as candidates from MP. Tribal leader Sameer Uranv is a candidate from Jharkhand.
SINGHVI IN CONG LIST
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi will contest from West Bengal, where he will be supported by the state’s ruling TMC. Senior journalist Kumar Ketkar is the party candidate from Maharashtra.
Party president Rahul Gandhi cleared the names, which include former Union minister Naranbhai Rathwa and party spokesperson Amee Yajnik from Gujarat, senior leader Dhiraj Prasad Sahu from Jharkhand, former state minister Rajmani Patel from Madhya Pradesh and former Union minister Porika Balram Naik from Telangana.
In Karnataka, the Congress has nominated party spokesperson Syed Naseer Hussain, Vokkaliga leader GC Chandrasekhar and Dalit poet L Hanumanthaiah.
TDP, TRS NOMINEES
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has re-nominated parliamentarian CM Ramesh for a second term in the Rajya Sabha, while Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar will be the party’s second candidate for the biennial elections to three seats in Andhra Pradesh.
Chief minister and party president N Chandrababu Naidu finalised the two names on Sunday.
The opposition YSR Congress, which has 44 MLAs, has the strength to win the third seat. All the three contestants are likely to be elected unopposed.
In Telangana, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi has the capability to win all the three Upper House seats in Parliament comfortably, with 90 MLAs. TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, announced on Sunday the names of Joginapalli Santosh Kumar, Badugula Lingaiah Yadav and Banda Prakash Mudiraj as candidates.