The deadline for filing nominations for the biennial elections for 56 Rajya Sabha seats to be held on February 27 ended on Thursday. Most of the candidates, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda and former Congress President Sonia Gandhi, are likely to be elected unopposed. Apart from the possibility of victory of BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, the contest in these states has become interesting due to fielding of one more candidate each (in terms of numerical strength).
Elections will be held on Rajya Sabha seats of these states
The states for which elections are being held on Rajya Sabha seats include 10 from Uttar Pradesh, six each from Maharashtra and Bihar, five each from West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, four each from Gujarat and Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Odisha. Three seats each are included in Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
Candidates can withdraw nomination till 20th February
The last date for withdrawal of nomination is 20th February. If necessary, voting will be held on February 27 from 9 am to 4 pm and counting of votes will begin at 5 pm on the same day.
Eight BJP candidates filed nomination in Uttar Pradesh
Eight BJP candidates have filed nominations in Uttar Pradesh, including former Union Minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, state party general secretary Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant, party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhana. Singh, former Agra mayor Naveen Jain and local industrialist and former SP leader Sanjay Seth. Samajwadi Party (SP) has again made Jaya Bachchan its candidate, while this time it has also given tickets to former MP Ramjilal Suman and retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan. Seven BJP candidates had filed nominations on Wednesday. Three SP candidates had filed nomination papers on Tuesday.
Rajya Sabha candidate in Uttar Pradesh needs 37 votes to win
In the 403-member assembly of Uttar Pradesh, BJP has 252 members, SP has 108 and Congress has two members. BJP’s ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 members in the House while Nishad Party has six members. There are nine members of RLD, six members of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, two members of Jansatta Dal Loktantrik and one member of BSP. In Uttar Pradesh, a Rajya Sabha candidate needs 37 votes to win. At present there are a total of 399 members in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly. With Seth entering the field, the competition here has become interesting.
Sonia Gandhi filed nomination from Rajasthan
Sonia Gandhi, who filed her nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan, on Thursday wrote an emotional letter to the voters of Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli constituency and said that she is not contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due to health and age-related issues. BJP’s Chunnilal Garasia and Madan Rathore have filed their nominations for the other two seats in the state.
BJP made Ashok Chavan its candidate from Maharashtra
BJP has fielded former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan from Maharashtra. He joined BJP soon after leaving Congress. The very next day he was declared a Rajya Sabha candidate. Shiv Sena has made Milind Deora its candidate. He had resigned from Congress last month. Congress has fielded Chandrakant Handore and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has fielded Praful Patel.
50 members are retiring on April 2 and six on April 3.
The current number of members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the upper house of the Parliament is 114. This includes 93 members of BJP. Congress has 30 seats, which is the second most powerful party. 50 members will retire on April 2 and six on April 3. The MPs whose tenure is ending include former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Bhupendra Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya and V Muraleedharan and BJP’s Anil Baluni and Sushil Kumar Modi.
BJP kept many senior leaders away from Rajya Sabha elections
BJP has not re-nominated many senior leaders and outgoing Rajya Sabha MPs in this round of Rajya Sabha elections. There are indications that the party may field some of these candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has re-nominated Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnav and L Murugan as Rajya Sabha candidates from Odisha and Madhya Pradesh respectively. Of the 28 outgoing MPs, BJP has re-nominated only four – Nadda, two Union ministers and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi. Vaishnav was elected to the Upper House of Parliament with the support of BJD in 2019 and the ruling party in Odisha again supported him on Wednesday.
In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress fielded people including Sagarika Ghosh.
In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress has fielded Sagarika Ghosh, Sushmita Dev, Mohammad Nadimul Haq and Mamta Bala Thakur, while BJP has fielded Samik Bhattacharya. Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi filed nomination for the only Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh. There is now a possibility of a direct contest for the only Rajya Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh as BJP has fielded former Congress government minister Harsh Mahajan against Singhvi. BJP’s move dashed Congress’s hopes of getting Singhvi elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed.
Renuka Chaudhary will return to Rajya Sabha from Telangana
Former Union Minister Renuka Chaudhary will return to Rajya Sabha from Telangana after a gap. Choudhary (69) has been a member of Lok Sabha twice and Rajya Sabha thrice. M Anil Kumar Yadav has also been fielded from this southern state where the party came to power in December. Former Union Minister Ajay Maken, who contested the Rajya Sabha elections from Haryana last year, has been fielded by Congress from party-ruled Karnataka. Congress has also re-nominated Syed Naseer Hussain, who is the coordinator in the office of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. This will be Hussain’s second term as a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka. The party has again made Congress leader GC Chandrashekhar its candidate from Karnataka. After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular) alliance in Karnataka has fielded a second candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections, the contest has become interesting as the alliance can win only one seat out of four as per the numbers. .
Elections for four seats in Karnataka are to be held on February 27.
Under the biennial elections of Rajya Sabha, elections are to be held on four seats of Karnataka on February 27 for which the assembly members will vote. The ruling Congress party in the state has 135 members in the 224-member assembly. The party also has the support of Darshan Puttanya of Sarvodaya Karnataka party as well as two independent MLAs, with the help of which it can retain its hold on three seats. At the same time, BJP and JD(S) have 66 and 19 members respectively and are in a position to win only one seat.
Congress again made Akhilesh Prasad Singh its candidate from Bihar.
Congress has again nominated Bihar unit chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh as its candidate from the state. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) announced that Manoj Kumar Jha and Sanjay Yadav will be the party’s candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections in Bihar. Apart from Murugan, BJP has fielded Dalit saint Umesh Nath Maharaj, backward class woman leader Maya Narolia and farmer leader Banshilal Gurjar from Madhya Pradesh. Congress nominated party state unit treasurer Ashok Singh, who filed his nomination papers in Bhopal today. JDU’s Sanjay Kumar Jha and BJP’s Bhim Singh and Dharamsheela Gupta filed their nomination papers in the presence of top NDA leaders of the state including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary.
BJP’s Devendra Pratap Singh filed nomination papers for the only Rajya Sabha seat from Chhattisgarh.
BJP’s Devendra Pratap Singh filed nomination papers for the only Rajya Sabha seat from Chhattisgarh. In Gujarat, BJP did not give tickets to Union ministers Purushottam Rupala and Mandaviya, who had won the 2018 elections from the same state. He is likely to be fielded in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Apart from Nadda, the party has fielded its leaders Jaswant Singh Parmar and Mayank Nayak and diamond businessman Govind Dholakia from the state.