 "ashok chavan")
Rajya Sabha polls: The Bharatiya Janata Party, on Wednesday, named its national President JP Nadda and newly inducted member Ashok Chavan as its Rajya Sabha candidates from Gujarat and Maharashtra, respectively.
Other than Nadda and Chavan, leading diamond baron Govindbhai Dholakia, BJP’s women’s wing national Vice-President Medha Kulkarni, party’s Gujarat president of OBC Morcha Mayankbhai Nayak were also nominated for the RS biennial elections, set to be held on February 27.
Notably, veteran ex-Congress leader and former Maharashtra minister, Chavan, quit the party to join the BJP on Tuesday.
Rupala, Mandaviya dropped
The outgoing BJP MPs and Union Ministers Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala, Mansukh Laxmanbhai Mandaviya, and V Muraleedharan have not been renominated for the elections to 56 seats in 15 states. MP Prakash Javadekar has also been dropped from the list.
The party released its fresh list hours after it named Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan as Rajya Sabha candidates from Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, respectively.
Last date of filing nomination Feb 15
The last date for filing nominations for the election is Thursday.
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The poll dates were announced by the Election Commission of India on January 29. "While 50 members retire on April 2, six do so on April 3," the poll body said.
The scrutiny of nominations will be done on February 16.
In 2024, as many as 69 Rajya Sabha seats are up for election. The upcoming polls to 56 seats come ahead of the much-anticipated Lok Sabha elections.
According to Article 83(1) of the Constitution, one-third of the members of this House retire after every second year. These vacancies are filled by conducting "biennial elections."
