BJP sets out to name Elders

With over 58 seats coming up for elections in the Rajya Sabha in April, speculation is rife over who will make it to the Upper House as a first timer.

The BJP Parliamentary Board will be holding its meeting on March 10 to decide the party's nominees for the 18 seats for which they can nominate members.

"We are hoping that we will get one more seat from Bihar, in addition to the two seats we already have, after an adjustment with the Janata Dal (U)," said a top source in the BJP.

This will raise the BJP tally to 19. Party insiders said many of the outgoing 16 members of the Rajya Sabha belonging to the BJP may be repeated.

These include former Union ministers Sushma Swaraj, who is likely to be nominated either from Karnataka or Chhattisgarh, Arun Jaitley who will come in from Madhya Pradesh, and Ravi Shankar Prasad from Bihar. The renomination of Balbir Punj and former minister for sports Vikram Verma appears doubtful.

The Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP has sent in two names. They are, former Bajrang Dal chief and BJP General Secretary Vinay Katiyar, and Kalraj Mishra, who is to retire from the House in April.

There is a possibility that former principal secretary to Atal Behari Vajpayee, Brajesh Mishra may make it to the Rajya Sabha this time. Mishra has been making a quiet comeback after shaping the BJP's recent response to the Indo-US nuclear deal and the vote on Iran's nuclear programme at the International Atomic Energy Agency. It has to be seen, however, how the RSS reacts to this candidature.

C P Thakur and Tarakant Jha are expected to come in from Bihar, but one of them may get axed if the seat adjustment with Janata Dal (U) does not work out. Jharkhand is expected to send in S S Ahluwalia, while Rudrapani Narayan will be repeated from Orissa.