Cong’s Digvijaya, JDU’s Harivansh, BJP’s former SC Morcha Chief get Rajya Sabha tickets

New Delhi |Mumbai: With the deadline for filing nominations to Rajya Sabha ending on Friday, several parties have declared their candidates.

BJP declared its second list of Rajya Sabha candidates, comprising five names, on Thursday. It fielded its former Scheduled Caste Morcha chief Dushyant Gautam from Haryana while RSS worker Sumer Singh Solanki pipped other contenders from Madhya Pradesh for a seat in the Upper House. Ramchandra Jhangra, an OBC leader from BJP, was also given the ticket from Haryana. The party fielded its former Himachal Pradesh Mahila Morcha chief Indu Goswami for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the state. Bhagwat Karad, a former mayor of Aurangabad, was nominated by BJP from Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, Congress fielded Digvijaya Singh and Phool Singh Baraiya from Madhya Pradesh while party leader Rahul Gandhi’s handpicked general secretary (org) K C Venugopal was named from Rajasthan. Neeraj Dangi got the second Congress’ ticket from Rajasthan. From Gujarat, the party named Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharat Solanki. Rajeev Satav was nominated from Maharashtra. The Congress seat from Haryana went to former CM B S Hooda’s son Deepender Hooda after the senior Hooda blocked the renomination of Kumari Selja and efforts of Randeep Surjewala to bag the seat. The Congress list thus ended without Priyanka Gandhi being named for Rajya Sabha. Congress named KTS Tulsi and Phulo Devi Netam from Chhattisgarh, Shahzada Anwar from Jharkhand and Kennedy C Khyriem from Meghalaya. JDU announced the names of Harivansh and Ram Nath Thakur from Bihar. Both are outgoing members of the Upper House. Thakur is considered JDU’s MBC face in the state. The Congress list thus ended the talk of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra entering the Rajya Sabha, for now.


RJD fielded Prem Chand Gupta, a close aide of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Amarendra Dhari Singh, Patna-based entrepreneur, for the two of the five Rajya Sabha seats that will go to poll. Shiv Sena nominated Priyanka Chaturvedi from Maharashtra. Although the last date to file nominations is Friday, candidates for only six of the seven seats in the state have been finalised. There is no clarity on who will be nominated for the lone seat.

The NCP, which has already filed a nomination for party chief Sharad Pawar, wants to send one more party leader to the Rajya Sabha.