BJP announces list of 16 candidates for Rajya Sabha elections

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its list of sixteen candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections which are scheduled to take place on June 10. Polling will be held for 57 seats spread across 15 states. These elections will be crucial as they take place ahead of Presidential elections due in July.

Among the prominent names, the list includes Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman from Karnataka and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal from Maharashtra who are up for re-election as their terms are set to end.

Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's term is also set to end but he has not been named in the list by the party.

The maximum number of seats, 11, lies in Uttar Pradesh where the BJP has fielded Laxmikant Vajpayee from Uttar Pradesh, Radha Mohan Agarwal from Uttar Pradesh, Surendra Nagar, Baburam Nishad, Darshana Singh, Sangeeta Yadav from Uttar Pradesh so far.

In Maharashtra where 6 seats are up for election, other than Piyush Goyal, the BJP has named Anil Bonde from Maharashtra in its list.

Tamil Nadu also has six seats that are due to go to the polls. The BJP has named no candidate so far from the state.

Elections will also be held on five seats from Bihar, four each from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, three each from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two each from Punjab, Jharkhand, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Telangana and one seat from Uttarakhand.

BJP's list includes Ghanshyam Tiwari from Rajasthan, Kalpana Saini from Uttarakhand, Satish Chandra Dubey from Bihar, Shambhu Sharan Patel from Bihar, Krishan Lal Panwar from Haryana, Kavita Patidar from Madhya Pradesh, Jaggesh from Karnataka.

Of the 57 seats that are going to the polls, the BJP has 23 seats while eight are held by the Congress.