The BJP, which currently has 47 members in the Rajya Sabha, is having a difficult time trying to fill up 12 vacancies; a choice made harder with diverse aspirants, from journalist Prabhu Chawala to former Congress leader Natwar Singh, vying hard for nominations to the upper house on saffron tickets.
Reliable sources told Deccan Herald that the party has decided to nominate former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Shanta Kumar for the Rajya Sabha. The Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh is falling vacant after the election of Suresh Bhardwaj, a former state BJP president, to the Assembly.
Former scribe and current party secretary Balbir Punj may again be nominated for the upper house, they said. Another hot contender is party spokesman Prakash Javadekar who hails from Maharashtra.
Chance for Natwar
“Natwar and Chawla have good chances,” sources in the party said but did not rule out “opposition from within”. Chawala has been in the race for a Rajya Sabha ticket in the past but could not make it in the face of stiff opposition from the party general secretary Arun Jaitley. BJP already has two senior journalists Arun Shourie and Chandan Mitra in the upper house.
Bollywood star and ex-minister Shatraghun Sinha may not be nominated again. The wrestler-turned-film star Dara Singh and cine-screen “dream girl” Hema Malini are the other two Bollywood saffron representatives in the Rajya Sabha.
12 vacancies
BJP has around 12 vacancies but is in a position to elect 16 candidates to the house.
The BJPs’ benches in the Rajya Sabha are already crowded with some of the key party leaders, including Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh, Sushma Swaraj, M Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley, Vinay Katiyar, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Yashwant Sinha, preferring the upper house to the house of representatives — the Lok Sabha.
The saffron space in the upper house is also turning narrower with “outsiders” like ex-Congress leader Najma Heptullah entering the Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket. Natwar, a Congress man until recently who was attacked by the BJP in connection with the oil scandal, is also trying to enter the house the Heptullah way.