Pays to clap: Akbar (extreme left). The BJP released another list of six candidates for the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha from five states, including Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.
Others shortlisted by the BJP central election committee are party spokesperson M.J. Akbar, vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Vikas Mahatme, Shiv Pratap Shukla and Mahesh Poddar.
Prabhu, who entered the upper house last time from Haryana, has now been nominated from Andhra Pradesh.
Akbar, earlier elected from Jharkhand to the upper house, has now been nominated from Madhya Pradesh while Sahasrabuddhe and Mahatme have been nominated from Maharashtra.
Shukla has been nominated from Uttar Pradesh and Poddar from Jharkhand.
The BJP had released a list of 12 candidates on Sunday as well, which included the names of union ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Chaudhary Birender Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
The other candidates named by the BJP central election committee for the Rajya Sabha elections from nine states were Om Prakash Mathur, Harsh Vardhan Singh, Ram Kumar Verma, Purushottam Rupala, Anil Madhav Dave, Ramvichar Netam and Gopal Narayan Singh.
Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Monday filed his nomination papers for the coming Rajya Sabha polls in the state.
Elections to two seats in the upper house from Jharkhand are scheduled to be held on June 11. The last date for filing of nominations is May 31.
Naqvi, who arrived in Ranchi on Monday from New Delhi, was accompanied by Chief Minister Raghubar Das when he filed his papers in the assembly secretariat here.
Except for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, no other party has made its intentions clear on fighting the polls.
The Congress is likely to extend support to the JMM’s probable candidate Basant Soren, who is party chief Shibu Soren’s third son.
Two of the six Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand will fall vacant in June after BJP’s M.J. Akbar and Congress’ Dheeraj Sahu complete their terms.
Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, senior BJP leader Om Prakash Mathur and two others filed their nomination as BJP candidates from Rajasthan for the Rajya Sabha here on Monday.
Mathur, who is considered close to the party’s central leadership, is also the national vice-president of the BJP.
Two new faces, Harshvardhan Singh and Ramkumar Verma, also filed their nominations.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, her cabinet colleagues and BJP MLAs were present on the occasion.
“Nominations were filed today by four of the BJP candidates,” Rajasthan assembly secretary Prithvi Raj told reporters.
After filing the nomination, Naidu said: “I thank the central leadership, Rajasthan chief minister, her cabinet colleagues and MLAs to have given me an opportunity to go to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. I will now give more attention to the state.”
Mathur said that he will raise issues concerning the state before the Centre.
The last date for filing nominations is May 31. Scrutiny of the nominations will take place on June 1 and elections, if necessary, will be held on June 11. (IANS)