Maharashtra Rajya Sabha polls: BJP fields Narayan Rane; Congress Kumar Ketkar

NEW DELHI | BENGALURU: Business tycoon Rajeev Chandrasekhar, former Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane, BJP media convenor Anil Baluni, spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao and general secretaries Anil Jain and Saroj Pande figure in the list of 28 BJP nominees for Rajya Sabha announced on Sunday.

Rane will contest from Maharashtra, Chandrasekhar from Karnataka, Baluni from Uttarakhand, Pande from Chhattisgarh. Anil Jain, Rao, Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar and Kanta Kardam from UP. Former BJP Kerala unit chief V Murlidharan will be in fray from Maharashtra.

Sameer Uranv is the BJP candidate from Jharkhand, Kailash Soni and Ajay Pratap Singh (both Madhya Pradesh), Kirori Lal Meena and Madan Lal Saini (both Rajasthan), and Lt Gen (retd) DP Vats from Haryana.


Congresss too fielded journalist Kumar Ketkar as its candidate from Maharashtra.

By fielding the three candidates L Hanumanthaiah, Syed Nazeer Hussen and G C Chandrashekhar from Karnataka, the party makes clear its intention to go for an extra seat from the state. While it persuaded Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to back party nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi it fielded Dhiraj Prasad Sahu from Jharkhand after ensuring ally JMM's backing.

While OBC leader Rajmani Patel will enter RS from MP Congress fielded spokesperson Anee Yagnik and Naranbhai Rathwa from Gujarat, ending the efforts for a ticket for Sam Pitroda. The Congress also fielded Parika Balaram Naik from Telenganawhere party has nil chance of bagging a RS seat.