On Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unveiled its list of nine candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha bypolls scheduled for September 3. The party has strategically fielded a diverse group of candidates across several states to fill 12 vacant Rajya Sabha seats.
Among the prominent candidates are Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian. Bittu will contest from Rajasthan, while Kurian is the party’s candidate from Madhya Pradesh. The BJP has also chosen Mamata Mohanta, a former leader of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) from Odisha, and Kiran Choudhary, a former Congress leader from Haryana, both of whom recently joined the BJP.
In addition to these high-profile entries, the BJP has announced Manan Kumar Mishra for Bihar, Dhairyashil Patil for Maharashtra, and Rajib Bhattacharjee for Tripura. Bhattacharjee, who is the president of the BJP’s Tripura unit, is a key figure in the state’s political landscape.
The party has also fielded Mission Ranjan Das and former Union minister Rameswar Teli as candidates from Assam.
The Rajya Sabha bypolls are crucial as they aim to fill vacancies left by the election of sitting members, including Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Sarbananda Sonowal, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, to the Lok Sabha. Additionally, bypolls will be held for two seats each in Telangana and Odisha.