Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal among 16 BJP faces in fray
New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday announced 16 candidates for the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls, fielding Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman from Maharashtra and Karnataka respectively.
Of the 16 candidates, six are from Uttar Pradesh.
Former BJP MLA Radha Mohan Das Aggarwal who left his Gorakhpur Urban constituency for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to contest in the recent Assembly polls was among the candidates.
From Uttar Pradesh, the party has also fielded former state unit chief Laxmikant Vajpayee, sitting Rajya Sabha MP Surendra Singh Nagar and Bauburam Nishad, the chairperson of the UP Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation.
The party has fielded two women — Darshana Singh and Sangeeta Yadav — from the state. Singh is a former state head of the party's women wing, while Yadav is a former party MLA from Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur.
The party announced the names of two candidates each from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Bihar and one candidate each from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Haryana.
Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe whose tenures are ending did not feature in the BJP's first list of candidates.
The name of BJP general secretary Dushyant Gautam, who was a Rajya Sabha member from Haryana, was also missing from the first list of candidates. The party has given ticket to former MLA Krishan Lal Panwar from Haryana. Kavita Patidar will be the party's nominee from Madhya Pradesh, Ghanshyam Tiwari from Rajasthan and Kalpana Saini from Uttarakhand.
From Bihar, the party has fielded Satish Chandra Dubey and Shambhu Sharan Patel.
Union Commerce & Industry Minister Goyal and Anil Sukhdevrao Bonde have been nominated from Maharashtra, according to a BJP release.
Union Finance Minister Sitharaman and actor-turned-politician Jaggesh will be the party's nominee from Karnataka.
Meanwhile, in a late-night development, Congress on Sunday declared 10 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election. Among key nominees are party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, former finance minister P Chidambaram, Rajeev Shukla, Jairam Ramesh, Ranjeet Rajan and Ajay Maken.
As per the list, Congress has fielded AICC media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala from Rajasthan. As the party is eyeing three Rajya Sabha seats from Congress-ruled Rajasthan, other two nominees are Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari. The party has also declared Ranjeet Ranjan, who is the wife of strongman Pappu Yadav, and Rajeev Shukla a party candidates for the Upper House from Chhattisgarh.
Ajay Maken has been fielded from Haryana, while Jairam Ramesh is party candidate from Karnataka for the Upper House election and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has been selected by the party to represent Tamil Nadu in Rajya Sabha. Vivek Tankha has been fielded from Madhya Pradesh and Imran Pratapgarhi is Congress nominee from Maharashtra. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the names as party candidates to contest the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha, read a statement signed by Wasnik. Elections will be held on June 10 to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August. The last date for filing nominations is May 31.
