The BJP has appointed Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to the Rajya Sabha, despite controversy over its choice of 18 candidates for the June 10 elections. There will be voting for 57 seats across 15 states.
Nirmala Sitharaman is the BJP’s Karnataka candidate, while Piyush Goyal is seeking re-election in Maharashtra.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the Union Minister for Minority Affairs who represents Jharkhand in the Rajya Sabha, is not on this list. Prakash Javadekar, a former Union Minister, has also been dropped.
Veterans like OP Mathur, Dushyant Gautam, the BJP’s general secretary, and Vinay Sahastrabuddhe were not re-elected. Shiv Pratap Shukla, the BJP’s chief whip in the Rajya Sabha and a former Union Minister, is also not included.
Sanjay Seth, who moved to the Samajwadi Party before the Uttar Pradesh election, and Syed Zafar Islam, the BJP’s national spokesperson, have been sacked.
Laxmikant Bajpai, Radha Mohan Agarwal, Surendra Nagar, Baburam Nishad, Darshana Singh, and Sangeeta Yadav have been named as candidates from Uttar Pradesh, where 11 seats are vacant.
Radha Mohan Agrawal has been elected to the Rajya Sabha after relinquishing his Gorakhpur seat to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the February-March state election.
Baburam Nishad Darshana Singh and Sangeeta Yadav are the other contestants from Uttar Pradesh.
SC Dubey, a member of the Rajya Sabha representing Bihar, has been re-nominated. The other contender from Bihar is Shambhu Sharon Patel, an OBC (Other Backward Class) activist.
Anil Sukhdevrao Bonde, a farmer leader and Maharashtra minister, will address the Rajya Sabha.
