Rajya Sabha nominations: Ashwini Vaishnaw of Odisha and JP Nadda, the president of the BJP, will go via Gujarat
With just four of the 28 departing Rajya Sabha members securing party renomination today, the BJP is preparing to run many of its strongest candidates in the general election of 2024.
Party president JP Nadda, Union Railway and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan, and spokesman Sudhanshu Trivedi are among those who have been renominated.
As the party lacks support in Himachal Pradesh, Vaishnaw in Odisha, Murugan in Madhya Pradesh, and Trivedi in Uttar Pradesh, Nadda, whose second RS term from Himachal Pradesh expires this year, has been renominated from Gujarat. Significantly, Vaishnaw has received backing from the governing BJD in Odisha. Ashok Chavan and Milind Deora, two former Congress leaders who recently deserted, have been nominated by the NDA from Maharashtra.
The BJP has chosen Chavan, while the Shiv Sena headed by Eknath Shinde has fielded Deora. A day after joining the BJP, former chief minister of Maharashtra Chavan secured the saffron nomination, whilst Deora had joined the Shiv Sena on January 14.
Leading union ministers Bhupender Yadav and Mansukh Mandaviya, who finish their second terms in Rajasthan and Gujarat, respectively, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, who ends his third term in Karnataka in 2024, Parshottam Rupala, V Muraleedharan, and Narayan Rane are among those who have not been renominated.
The BJP has excluded former minister Prakash Javadekar, BJP media leader Anil Baluni, and former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi from the list of candidates for the 56 RS seats up for election on February 27.
Candidates who were not selected for the RS race are anticipated to run in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP had already determined that members of the RS who had served two terms need to run for office in the general election and demonstrate their abilities in the political sphere.
Despite serving two terms, Nadda is the only BJP MP to be nominated again for the RS. One-term Rajya Sabha members are involved in other renominations.
