BJP announces 9 candidates, including party president, for RS polls
What's the story
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its list of nine candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. The polls will be held on March 16 across 10 states, including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, to fill 37 seats. Counting of votes will be held on the same day. Among the nominees is BJP national president Nitin Nabin, who has been fielded from Bihar.
Candidate list
Other candidates on BJP's list
The other candidates are Shivesh Kumar, also from Bihar; Terash Gowalla and Jogen Mohan from Assam; Laxmi Verma from Chhattisgarh; Sanjay Bhatia from Haryana; Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar from Odisha; and Rahul Sinha from West Bengal. The 37 seats that are falling vacant include seven from Maharashtra, three from Odisha, six each from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, three from Assam, four from Bihar, two from Chhattisgarh, one each from Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and two from Telangana.
Election details
About Rajya Sabha elections
In the 245 member Upper House, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has a strength of 133 MPs, with the saffron party having 103 MPs. The opposition, on the other hand, has 79 MPs in the upper house: 27 from Congress, 12 from Trinamool Congress, 10 from DMK, five from RJD, and four each from Samajwadi Party and CPM.