Rajya Sabha elections: BJP announces 5 more candidates; Sumer Singh Solanki named for Madhya Pradesh

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday released another list of five more Rajya Sabha candidates for four states. The saffron party has announced two names for Haryana and one each for Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

Ram Chandra Jhangda and Dushyant Kumar Gautam will be the BJP's candidates from Haryana, while Indu Goswami and Bhagwant Karad are the candidates from Himachal and Maharashtra, respectively. From Madhya Pradesh, Sumer Singh Solanki's name has been finalised.

The new list has come in addition to the nine candidates announced on Wednesday for eight states, including Congress rebel Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The other candidates were from Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Assam, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Manipur. The elections for the 55 Rajya Sabha seats are scheduled to be held on March 26. The last date of filing the nomination is March 13.

Jyotiraditya Scindia among nine others who featured in the first list

Vivek Thakur, son of former Union minister CP Thakur was named from Bihar. The name of Thakur, a Bhumihar, has been announced keeping in view the upcoming Assembly elections in the state. Newly elected state president Deepak Prakash will be the BJP's Jharkhand candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

From Gujarat, the party has named Ramilaben Bara and Abhay Bhardwaj, who was the defence lawyer in the Gulbarga Society case. Ramilaben had unsuccessfully contested the 2017 Assembly elections from Khedbrahma assembly constituency. In Maharashtra, the BJP has named Udyanraje Bhosale and RPI leader Ramdas Athawale.

In the Congress-ruled state of Rajasthan, the BJP is seeking to send its state vice-president Rajendra Gehlot to the Rajya Sabha. In Assam, Bhubaneswar Kalita, who hand quit Congress last year, has been re-nominated for the Upper House. Another Assam seat has gone to Biswajit Daimary from ally Bodoland People's Front. Leisemba Maharaja is BJP's candidate from Manipur.

For one of the two Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh due for elections later this month, the BJP announced Jyotiraditya Scindia as its candidate shortly after he became a member of the saffron party.

Scindia, who was in the Congress for 18 years, had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah before joining the BJP. He reportedly demanded a Rajya Sabha birth and place in the Union Cabinet for pledging his loyalty to the BJP.