Scindia among 9 BJP candidates for Rajya Sabha polls

The BJP on Wednesday named Jyotiraditya Scindia as its Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh as it released a list of nine nominees for the election to 55 seats in the Upper House across 17 states on March 26.

Scindia's name was announced by the party hours after he joined it in the presence of its president J P Nadda.

Other candidates named by the BJP included Bhubaneswar Kalita from Assam, Vivek Thakur from Bihar, Udayanraje Bhosale from Maharashtra and Rajendra Gehlot from Rajasthan.

Abhay Bhardwaj and Ramilaben Bara from Gujarat, Deepak Prakash from Jharkhand and Leishemba Sanajaoba from Manipur were also named by the party as its Rajya Sabha nominees. Prakash is the state party president.

The BJP also said that it has allotted two seats to its allies with Dalit leader and Union minister Ramdas Athawale getting renominated from Maharashtra and Biswajit Daimary of Bodoland People's Front to contest from Assam.

Almost all these candidates are certain to enter Rajya Sabha as the BJP has numerical strength in the respective assembly to ensure their win.

Scindia had quit the Congress on Tuesday. He is an influential leader of Madhya Pradesh where 22 Congress MLAs, most of whom loyal to him, have resigned from the assembly in a bid to topple the Kamal Nath-led government.

Thakur is the son of former Union minister C P Thakur, whose term is ending, the BJP's decision to field him underscores its bid to keep Bhumihars, a strong support base for the party, in good humour in Bihar where assembly polls are due later this year.

Bhosale, who traces his lineage to Maratha king Shivaji, had left the NCP to join the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but had lost from Satara.

The list does not include the names of Vijay Goel and Prabhat Jha, among the incumbents whose terms will expire next month.