Yogi Adityanath contested the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections for the first time. Radhamohan Das Agarwal left the winning seat of Gorakhpur (city) for him. Radhamohan got the reward for leaving his seat. The BJP top leadership decided to nominate him for the Rajya Sabha. On the other hand, Vivek Tankha and Mukul Wasnik, two leaders of the ‘outraged’ G-23 group, got tickets in the first list of candidates published by the Congress. But the list does not include the names of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma, known as the top leaders of the agitated group.
Rajya Sabha elections are going to be held on June 10 in 57 seats in 15 states of the country. West Bengal is not in the list of those 15 states. The BJP today announced candidates for 18 seats in nine states. The party has given tickets from Karnataka and Maharashtra to Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Gayal respectively. Minority Development Minister Muktar Abbas Naqvi’s term has expired but his name is not in the list of Rajya Sabha candidates. As a result, speculation has started about whether he will be removed from the cabinet for any constitutional post.
The highest number of Rajya Sabha seats is being voted in Uttar Pradesh. Out of 11 seats in the state, BJP has won seven seats and Samajwadi Party has won three seats. There is a risk of a fierce battle for the remaining one seat. Opposition Sapa camp’s allegation is, BJP leaders have jumped at the chance to win the support of non-party candidates to ensure the victory of their eighth candidate. Out of the 6 seats announced in Uttar Pradesh today, Radhamohan, a leader of the merchant community, has been rewarded for giving up his seat to Yogi.
Sangeeta Yadav, a minister in the first Yogi government, also left her seat in Gorakhpur district. The party has decided to send her to the Rajya Sabha as the second candidate from Gorakhpur. Laxmikant Vajpayee is going to the Rajya Sabha as a Brahmin representative. Surendra Nagar and Baburam Nishad have been nominated as candidates keeping in mind the representation of backward Gujjars and Nishad classes. The party has given tickets to Darshana Singh of Varanasi to give a message to women empowerment and Jat society. She is the all-India vice-president of the BJP’s women’s wing. According to sources, the party plans to announce candidates for two more seats in the state.
After Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu will have the highest number of seats. Voting is scheduled for 6 seats in both the states. Apart from Piyush, the party has announced the names of two more in Maharashtra. The BJP leadership has not announced the names of Tamil Nadu candidates. The party has declared candidates in two of the five constituencies in Bihar and two of the four constituencies in Karnataka. One candidate each has been announced in Jharkhand, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.