BJP Appoints Union Ministers Incharge of States For Rajya Sabha Polls

Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has been made in-charge for Rajasthan polls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, 1 June, appointed Union ministers in-charge for the Rajya Sabha polls, scheduled to take place on 10 June.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, 1 June, appointed Union ministers incharge for the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled to take place on 10 June.

While Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has been made incharge for Rajasthan, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will be incharge for the polls in Haryana.

Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and G Kishan Reddy have been appointed as incharges for the polls at Maharashtra and Karnataka, respectively, reported news agency PTI.

The announcement comes a day after several candidates including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, K Laxman, BJP's OBC Morcha chief, Congress leaders Rajeev Shukla, Ajay Maken, and Randeep Singh Surjewala filed their nominations for the polls.

List of BJP Candidates for RS Election

FM Sitharaman from Karnataka, and Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal from Maharashtra are among the prominent names up for re-elections given the nearing end of their terms.

Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, however, has not been named in the list even though his term is set to end.

According to a press release, the party is currently contesting six seats in Uttar Pradesh, two seats in Karnataka, two in Maharashtra, two in Bihar and a single seat in Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

The BJP also announced the candidacy of Dr Anil Bonde from Maharashtra, Ghanshyam Tiwari from Rajasthan, Satish Chandra Dubey from Bihar, Kalpana Saini from Uttarakhand, Shambhu Sharan Patel from Bihar, Kavita Patidar from Madhya Pradesh, Jaggesh from Karnataka, and Krishan Lal Panwar from Haryana.

Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, the four-time MLA from Gorakhpur Urban, also featured on the list of candidates. Agarwal vacated his seat to make way for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the UP Assembly election.

The party subsequently announced Dhananjay Mahadik’s candidacy, making him the third candidate from Maharashtra. Meanwhile, Aditya Sahu, state BJP general secretary has been fielded from Jharkhand.

The polls will be held to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states which are becoming vacant after the retirement of members.

The election will be contested on 11 seats from Uttar Pradesh, seven seats from Maharashtra, six in Tamil Nadu, five seats from Bihar, four seats from Rajasthan, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, three seats in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two in Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Telangana, and a single seat in Uttarakhand.

(With inputs from PTI.)