BJP nominates Bihar party chief Nitin Nabin for Rajya Sabha, drops 5 sitting MPs

BJP president Nitin Nabin is all set to enter Rajya Sabha with the party on Tuesday announcing his candidate for Upper House from Bihar even as it dropped five sitting MPs in three states while retaining one.

Besides Nabin, the party has announced the eight more candidates from Bihar, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Odisha and West Bengal. The party has not announced candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls on March 16 from Maharashtra, where it is certain to win, as well as from Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh.

With the Opposition lacking numbers in Bihar and Assam for winning one each seat, it is to be seen whether BJP will field an extra candidate in these states.

Nabin, currently an MLA in Bihar, was appointed party chief in January and it was almost certain that he would shift to Rajya Sabha owing to his national profile. Along with Nabin, the party has also announced the candidature of Bihar BJP General Secretary Shivesh Kumar as the second candidate.

Five seats are going to Rajya Sabha elections in Bihar of which the JD(U)-BJP alliance is all set to win four seats, owing its numerical strength in the Assembly. The JD(U) will contest two seats that the NDA can win.

In Assam where the party can comfortably win two seats, the BJP has dropped both sitting MPs Rameshwar Teli, a former union minister, and senior leader Bhubaneswar Kalita. In their place, the party has named PWD Minister Jogen Mohan and MLA Terash Gowalla as candidates.

Sitting MP Sujeet Kumar has been repeated from Odisha while BJP state president Manmohan Samal has been named a candidate for the second seat, replacing Mamata Mohanta. Both Kumar and Mohanta were former BJD MPs and joined the saffron party.

Former West Bengal BJP president Rahul Sinha has been nominated by the party for the lone seat the BJP can win from the poll-bound state. While Trinamool Congress can easily corner four seats, the fifth seat was with the CPI(M) but with no MLA in Assembly, it cannot send any candidate to the Upper House this time.

In Haryana, BJP has dropped its two sitting MPs Kiran Choudhry and Ram Chander Jangra and instead nominated former Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Bhatia. Ruling BJP can win only one of the two seats in the state as the second seat could go to Congress, owing to the numerical equation in the Assembly.

Releasing the names, BJP National General Secretary Arun Singh said that the names of candidates have been approved by the party's Central Election Committee.