BJP chief Nitin Nabin to contest Rajya Sabha polls from Bihar

New Delhi: BJP national president Nitin Nabin was on Tuesday, March 3, nominated as the party’s candidate from Bihar for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released a list of nine candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls, fielding its former West Bengal unit chief Rahul Sinha and Chhattisgarh unit vice-president Laxmi Verma from the respective states.

Assam Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Jogen Mohan and MLA Terash Gowalla will be the saffron party’s candidates from the state for the election to the Upper House of Parliament.

The BJP has also nominated its Odisha unit president, Manmohan Samal, and leader Sujeet Kumar, an incumbent Rajya Sabha MP, as candidates from the state for the upcoming polls.

BJP leader Shivesh Kumar will join the fray from Bihar, and Sanjay Bhatia, a former Lok Sabha MP of the party, will be its candidate from Haryana. Kumar is the Bihar BJP’s general secretary.

The names of the candidates have been approved by the party’s central election committee, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh said.

Nabin’s nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls from Bihar was expected since he was elected unopposed as the BJP’s 12th national president in January. At present, he is an MLA from the Bankipur Assembly constituency in Bihar.

Nabin’s predecessors, J P Nadda and Amit Shah, were also elected to the Upper House after they became the BJP chief.

The biennial polls to 37 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states that are falling vacant on different dates in April are set to be held on March 16. The counting of votes will take place the same day.

The states where the seats are falling vacant are Maharashtra (seven), Odisha (four), Telangana (two), Tamil Nadu (six), Chhattisgarh (two), West Bengal (five), Assam (three), Haryana (two), Himachal Pradesh (one) and Bihar (five).

The last date for filing nominations is March 5.