New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released a fresh list of candidates for the Rajya Sabha, which includes the nomination of Ashwini Vaishnaw, the present Minister of Railways, from Odisha.
The Rajya Sabha election is scheduled to take place on February 27. Vaishnaw had previously been elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2019 with the support of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). It was speculated that Vaishnaw would be re-elected to the Rajya Sabha this time, with the BJD’s backing, since they did not announce the name of a third candidate.
The two candidates the BJD announced were Debashish Samantaray and Subhasish Khuntia. Even though the BJP has the required strength to win all three vacant Rajya Sabha seats, they would require the support of the BJD, as the BJP has only 22 members in the Odisha Assembly.
In Odisha, a candidate needs at least 37 votes to win one Rajya Sabha seat. Ashwini Vaishnaw is originally from Rajasthan but served as an IAS officer in Odisha before quitting his job in 2010. His tenure as a Rajya Sabha member from Odisha will end in April of this year.
Despite being a member of the BJP, Vaishnaw was elected to the Upper House of Parliament from Odisha with the BJD’s support in 2019.
The BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, announced his party’s support for Vaishnaw after a request from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2019.
List of BJP Candidates for Upcoming Rajya Sabha Election 2024
In the second list, the BJP announced the candidates for Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.
- Madhya Pradesh: Dr L Murugan, Umesh Nath Maharaj, Maya Naroliya, Bansilal Gurjar
- Odisha: Ashwini Vaishnaw
Earlier, the BJP announced 14 names for the Rajya Sabha election.
- Bihar: Dr Dharmsheela Gupta, Dr Bhim Singh
- Chhattisgarh: Raja Devendra Pratap Singh
- Haryana: Subhash Barala
- Karnataka: Narayana Krishanasa Bhandage
- Uttar Pradesh: Sudhanshu Trivedi, RPN Singh, Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, Sadhna Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Sangita Balwant, Navin Jain
- Uttarakhand: Mahendra Bhatt
- West Bengal: Samik Bhattacharya
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