Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP’s OBC Morcha chief K Laxman, Congress leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala, Ajay Maken and Rajeev Shukla and media baron Subhas Chandra were among those who filed their nominations on Tuesday for the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls. The elections are being held to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states that will be falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August. While 11 seats are falling vacant in Uttar Pradesh, six members each are retiring from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, five from Bihar and four each from Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka. Three members each from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two each from Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Punjab Jharkhand and Haryana, and one from Uttarakhand are also retiring.
Scrutiny of the nominations will be done on June 1, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is June 3. Results will be declared on June 10. The BJP currently has 95 and the Congress 29 MPs in the 245-member House.
The BJP announced 22 candidates for these polls and will support one Independent candidate each from Rajasthan (Chandra) and Haryana (media honcho Kartikeya Sharma). Though the party’s list of candidates includes the names of Union ministers like Piyush Goyal and Sitharaman, some other prominent names such as that of minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, and senior leaders Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and OP Mathur are missing.
In the Congress, there have been several voices of discontent emerging from within the party over the choice of candidates. Eight BJP candidates and an Independent filed their nominations in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP nominees are Laxman, former state party president Laxmikant Vajpayee, Mithilesh Kumar, Radha Mohan Das Aggarwal, Surendra Singh Nagar, Baburam Nishad, Darshana Singh and Sangeeta Yadav while Independent candidate is Mauni Falhari Bapu. Samajwadi party has fielded Javed Ali Khan and is supporting Independent Kapil Sibal and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhury. In Karnataka, while Sitharaman is seeking re-election, actor-politician Jaggesh (BJP), a former MLA and MLC, is contesting his first election to the Upper House of Parliament.
Among the others who filed papers during the day from the state are BJP’s third candidate and outgoing MLC Lehar Singh Siroya, and former MP D Kupendra Reddy from the JD(S). Congress candidates — former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and state general secretary Mansoor Ali Khan — filed their nominations on Monday. Backed by the BJP, Chandra filed his nomination from Rajasthan, a move that could scuttle the Congress’s chances of winning a third seat from Rajasthan.
The other candidates who filed their papers from the state on Tuesday are Congress leaders Mukul Wasnik, Pramod Tiwari and Randeep Singh Surjewala, and BJP’s Ghanshyam Tiwari. Essel Group chairman Chandra is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Haryana and his term is going to expire on August 1.
Ruling YSR Congress nominees R Krishnaiah, Beeda Masthan Rao, S Niranjan Reddy and V Vijayasai Reddy are set to be elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh as they are the only ones to file nominations. Environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal and entrepreneur-social activist Vikramjit Singh Sahney – both AAP candidates – filed their papers from Punjab.
BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar and Congress’s Maken filed their nomination papers from Haryana. Kartikeya Sharma, the son of former Congress leader Venod Sharma, also filed his nomination as an Independent candidate. With the entry of Sharma, the fight for two Rajya Sabha seats in the state is set to become interesting. In Madhya Pradesh, BJP’s Kavita Patidar and Sumitra Valmiki filed their papers, while the BJD’s Sulata Deo, Manas Ranjan Mangaraj, and Sasmit Patra submitted their nomination papers for the three seats to be vacant from July 1.
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