Najma, Joshi in BJP RS list

With Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar making it clear that he was under pressure from the Congress not to help Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptullah's re-election with a seat in the Rajya Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stepped in to rescue her.

Heptullah, who drifted away from the Congress during the Lok Sabha polls, was given a ticket by the BJP for the June 28 Rajya Sabha biennial elections along with Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha. Heptullah, a three-time Congress member of the Upper House from Maharashtra, will now contest from Rajasthan.

Among the 18 candidates decided today, party chief M Venkaiah Naidu, former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and party general secretary Pramod Mahajan have been renominated from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, respectively. Dilip Singh Judev has been renominated from Chhattisgarh.

Delhi hotelier Lalit Suri, former minister S Thirunavukkarasar and Shukantala Hegde, widow of former Karnataka Chief Minister Rama Krishna Hegde have been given tickets from Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, respectively.

Dilip Singh Judev who was involved in cash-on-camera scam has been renominated from Chhattisgarh.

Heptullah's name was on top of the list of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti and is likely to be the BJP's nominee from the state, also her home state, in the Rajya Sabha.

Obviously Heptullah will have to quit the Congress and join the BJP to achieve her objective. The other nominees for three seats in the Rajya Sabha from MP, forwarded by the Chief Minister are BJP officebearer Pyarelal Khandelwal and state BJP leader LN Sharma.

Bharati wants former Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie to be elected from her state, although he is already assured of a seat from UP.

Party President Venkaiah Naidu held a meeting of the Centtral Election Committee in the evening today to discuss the names, a day after the Supreme Court lifted a stay on the election of 65 Mps beginning 21 June.
Madhya Pradesh has four vacancies, one caused by the vacancy created by Kailash Joshi who was appointed Governor. The fourth seat has a tenure of just two years.

However, while the centre and the state unit of the party in Madhya Pradesh are broadly in agreement on the candidates on the list, in  Rajasthan where the party has four seats, there was a tussle over seats.

The state unit had its own candidates with the only common candidate on the centre and the state list being former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh.

The centre's list had on it hotelier Lalit Suri who was elected earlier to the Rajya Sabha from UP for a two year term. Former Organising Secretary in the central party, Om Mathur was favoured by the central unit of the BJP. The centre was reportedly flexible on the fourth seat.

The state unit, however wanted as its candidate, respected Jat leader Gyan Prakash Pilania, because of whom the jat mood swung to the BJP on the eve of the assembly elections last year. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje also wanted businessman Sudhanshu Mittal and a Scheduled Caste leader S Badgujar.

The RSS, a strong presence in Rajasthan, has also let the BJP know that it is not for Lalit Suri's election. Vasundhara Raje had a separate meeting with Naidu to press home her point.