The Congress on Sunday cleared the names of its 10 candidates, which included that of senior journalist Kumar Ketkar, for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, with party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi to contest from West Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress has already announced its support for Singhvi's candidature. Singhvi is representing the party in the Supreme Court in some high-profile cases.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi approved the names of 10 party candidates. The last date for nominations is Monday, 12 March 2018.
The party cleared the names of Amee Yagnik and former Union minister Naranbhai Ratwa from Gujarat, Dhiraj Prasad Sahu from Jharkhand, and Rajmani Patel from Madhya Pradesh.
According to a statement issued by party general secretary Oscar Fernandes, journalist Kumar Ketkar has been nominated from Maharashtra.
The party has also nominated L Hanumanthaiah, Syed Naseer Hussain and G C Chandrasekhar from Karnataka, while Porika Balram Naik has been nominated to contest from Telangana.
With an eye on the upcoming state polls, the BJP also announced its 18 candidates, including former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane and several of its central office bearers on Sunday.
BJP general secretaries Anil Jain and Saroj Pandey, its spokespersons Anil Baluni and G V L Narasimha Rao and entrepreneur Rajeev Chandrasekhar are among the candidates, according to a party statement.
BJP has opted for Kirori Lal Meena, an influential caste leader who had fought against them in the last Assembly polls in Rajasthan, as its candidate from the state.
Former Kerala BJP chief V Muralidharan will be BJP’s second candidate from Maharashtra.
Saroj Pandey, who had lost the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, has been fielded from Chhattisgarh, Madan Lal Saini from Rajasthan, Lt Gen D P Vats (retd) from Haryana, Kailash Soni and Ajay Pratap Singh from Madhya Pradesh, Chandrasekhar from Karnataka and Sameer Oraon from Jharkhand.
From Uttar Pradesh, where the party is set to win eight of the 10 seats going to the polls, its other candidates are Ashok Bajpai, who had quit the SP to join the BJP, former farmers cell chief Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam and Harnath Singh Yadav, besides Jain and Rao.
The party opted for a tribal candidate in Jharkhand to reach out to the Scheduled tribes.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), named its national spokesman Manoj Jha and Ashfaque Karim, managing director of the Katihar Medical College and Hospital, as its candidates from Bihar for the upcoming Rajya Sabha biennial elections.
There are six vacancies in the Rajya Sabha from Bihar.
RJD's Bihar unit president Ram Chandra Purbey announced at the party office in Patna that Jha, a Delhi University professor, and Karim would be the party's candidates for Rajya Sabha election.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) re-nominated C M Ramesh, a businessman and party financier, and chose a surprise candidate, Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar, for elections to the two Rajya Sabha seats from Andhra Pradesh.
With this, the TDP put an end to speculation that it might field a third candidate, forcing an election on 23 March.
The YSR Congress chose businessman Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy for the lone seat it could win and he has already filed his nomination.
On its strength in the Assembly, the TDP could win at least two seats. In all, three seats from the state will fall vacant on 2 April with the retirement of incumbents K Chiranjeevi, Renuka Chowdary and T Devender Goud.
The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in Telangana announced its names of the three candidates for the ensuing Rajya Sabha elections from the state.
Telangana Chief Minister and TRS Chief K Chandrasekhar Rao announced the names of party's general secretary J Santosh Kumar, B Lingaiah Yadav and B Prakash at the TRS legislature party meeting.
Rajya Sabha elections are slated to be held on 23 March while the results will be out on the same day after 5pm.
(With inputs from PTI)
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