Former Union minister RPN Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi were among the 14 names announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election. Sudhanshu Trivedi is the only outgoing MP renominated by the party.
Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who represents Karnataka in Rajya Sabha, and BJP chief spokesperson and media head Anil Baluni, the outgoing MP from Uttarakhand, have been replaced with fresh faces, sparking murmurs that they may contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Full List of BJP's Candidates For Rajya Sabha Polls
State Name - Candidate Name
Bihar - Dharmsheela Gupta
Bihar - Dr Bhim Singh
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Chhattisgarh - Raja Devendra Pratap Singh
Haryana - Subhash Barala
Karnataka - Narayana Krishanasa Bhandage
Uttar Pradesh - RPN Singh
Uttar Pradesh - Sudhanshu Trivedi
Uttar Pradesh - Chaudhary Tejveer Singh
Uttar Pradesh - Sadhna Singh
Uttar Pradesh - Amarpal Maurya
Uttar Pradesh - Sangita Balwant
Uttar Pradesh - Navin Jain
Uttarakhand - Mahendra Bhatt
West Bengal - Samik Bhattacharya
Some of the new names, including Narayansa K Bhandage from Karnataka and Devendra Pratap Singh from Chhattisgarh, are little known but have been rewarded for their years of hard work for the party, something the current BJP leadership has often recognised. Devendra Pratap Singh is from the erstwhile Gond royal family and replaces Saroj Pandey.
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Sadhna Singh, Tejveer Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Sangita Balwant and Navin Jain are the BJP nominees from Uttar Pradesh besides RPN Singh and Trivedi.
Senior Bihar leader Sushil Kumar Modi did not figure among the candidates named by the party.
Bihar has six vacancies and both the ruling NDA and the opposition are likely to win three seats each, going by their current strengths. The JD(U), a BJP ally, is likely to name its candidate for one seat.
Elections for 56 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 states are scheduled to be held on February 27, and the last date for filing nominations is February 15.
Except for Sudhanshu Trivedi, none of the nine outgoing BJP MPs from Uttar Pradesh including Anil Jain, Anil Agrawal and GVL Narasimha Rao has been renominated.
(With PTI inputs)
