The Congress and BJP on Thursday (June 4) announced their candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, fielding senior leaders, party office-bearers and organisational figures for the biennial polls to the Upper House scheduled for June 18.
The Congress released its list of seven candidates, with party president Mallikarjun Kharge set to contest from Karnataka and party media department head Pawan Khera also named as a nominee. The party fielded AICC secretary Mansoor Ali Khan from Karnataka, Meenakshi Natarajan from Madhya Pradesh, Praveen Chakravarty from Tamil Nadu, Neeraj Dangi from Rajasthan and Pranav Jha from Jharkhand.
In a communication, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said the Congress president had approved the names for the biennial and bye-elections to the Council of States. The candidates expressed gratitude to the party leadership after their nomination.
Meanwhile, the BJP announced its list of 11 candidates across five states, fielding senior leaders Tarun Chugh from Madhya Pradesh and Satish Poonia from Rajasthan. The list also included Debashish Samantaray from Odisha, Alka Gurjar from Rajasthan, and A Sharda Devi and Tai Tagak from Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh respectively.
Notably, Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian were not renominated despite their Rajya Sabha terms ending on June 21, triggering political speculation over a possible Cabinet reshuffle. Kurian represents Madhya Pradesh in the Upper House, while Bittu is a member from Rajasthan.
The BJP also named Rajubhai Shukla, Mukeshbhai Rathwa, Mansingh Parmar and Jitendra Meghjibhai Kanzariya as candidates from Gujarat, and Rajneesh Agrawal from Madhya Pradesh.
The Rajya Sabha elections for 24 seats across 10 states will be held on June 18, along with bypolls for three vacant seats. The last date for filing nominations is June 8.
(With agency inputs)
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