Rajya Sabha polls: All 4 BJP nominees, including party chief Nadda, file nominations

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and state BJP chief CR Paatil accompanied Nadda when he arrived at the state legislative assembly complex here to file his candidature. Returning officer Rita Mehta accepted the papers from these four BJP candidates.

All four BJP nominees from Gujarat, including party president J P Nadda, on Thursday filed their nomination papers here for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls, which are likely to go unopposed as no other party has fielded candidates.

Besides Nadda, the ruling BJP has nominated party leader from Godhra, Jashvantsinh Parmar, diamond baron Govind Dholakia and another leader Mayank Nayak for the February 27 election.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and state BJP chief C R Paatil accompanied Nadda when he arrived at the state assembly complex here to submit the nomination papers. Returning officer Rita Mehta accepted the nomination papers of the four BJP candidates.

Though a person named Paresh Mulani also filed his nomination on Wednesday, his candidature will be rejected during scrutiny as he did not have the support of any MLA, which is mandatory as per the rules, Mehta said.

Since no other party has fielded candidates and Thursday being the last day to file nomination papers, these four BJP nominees are likely to be elected unopposed. With a record 156 MLAs in the 182-member Gujarat assembly belonging to the BJP and the main opposition party Congress reduced to just 15 members at present, the ruling party is set to sweep all four seats.

At present, of these four Rajya Sabha seats, which will fall vacant soon, two are held by the BJP while two others by the Congress. In 2018, Congress had sent two of the four candidates Amee Yagnik and Naran Rathwa to the Rajya Sabha. Union ministers Parshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya had won the 2018 Rajya Sabha elections from the state.

Rupala and Mandaviya, who have not renominated for the Rajya Sabha this time, are likely to be fielded for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Nayak is an Other Backward Class (OBC) leader and currently serves as the president of the party's OBC morcha. Known to be a dedicated party worker, he had also served as the BJP in-charge for Patan district.

Dholakia is the founder and chairman of Shree Ramkrishna Exports Private Limited, a Surat-based diamond manufacturing and exporting company. He is known for his humanitarian activities. The Election Commission had last month released the date for the Rajya Sabha elections to 56 seats from 15 states. The elections will be held on February 27.