Several prominent names including Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Vasundhara Raje, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, M J Akbar, Shiv Pratap Shukla, O P Shukla were found missing from the BJP’s third list of four candidates announced on Monday for the Rajya Sabha elections. The BJP has already fielded 22 candidates so far for the 57 vacant seats in the Upper House that will go to polls on June 10.
Naqvi’s exclusion from the list comes as a surprise as it puts his future as a Union Minister hangs in balance. Naqvi, who had retired from his Jharkhand seat and was expected to be nominated from Uttar Pradesh this time around, is the only Muslim face in the PM Modi’s Council of Ministers.
From Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has named state OBC chief K Laxman while fielding Sumitra Valmiki from Madhya Pradesh, Lal Singh Sirhoya from Karnataka and Mithilesh Kumar from Uttar Pradesh, the party said in a statement. Announcing its first list on Sunday, the BJP had named 16 candidates, including Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal from Karnataka and Maharashtra, respectively, for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls. The Upper House candidates from both Congress and BJP in Rajasthan will file their nominations today.
Earlier this year, the BJP achieved the milestone of touching the 100-mark in the Rajya Sabha, the only party to achieve this feat since 1988. The BJP, which is not in majority in the 245-members strong Upper House, will be looking to inch closer to the 123-mark. Eleven of the 57 seats going to polls lie in Uttar Pradesh, followed by six each in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
After the nomination papers are filed, they will be scrutinised on June 1. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is June 3 and the voting will take place on June 10.