BJP announces 16 candidates for Rajya Sabha polls; fields Piyush Goyal from Maharashtra, Nirmala Sitharaman from Karnataka

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday (May 29, 2022) announced 16 candidates for the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls and fielded Union ministers Piyush Goyal from Maharashtra and Nirmala Sitharaman from Karnataka. Of the 16 candidates, six are from Uttar Pradesh. Former BJP MLA Radha Mohan Das Aggarwal who left his Gorakhpur Urban constituency for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to contest in the recent assembly polls was among the candidates.

From Uttar Pradesh, the party has also fielded former state unit chief Laxmikant Vajpayee, sitting Rajya Sabha MP Surendra Singh Nagar and Bauburam Nishad, the chairperson of the UP Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation.

The party has fielded two women -- Darshana Singh and Sangeeta Yadav -- from the state. Singh is a former state head of the party's women wing, while Yadav is a former party MLA from Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur.

The party announced the names of two candidates each from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Bihar, and one candidate each from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Haryana.

भारतीय जनता पार्टी की केंद्रीय चुनाव समिति ने विभिन्न राज्यों में होने वाले आगामी राज्य सभा द्विवार्षिक चुनाव 2022 के लिए निम्नलिखित नामों पर अपनी स्वीकृति प्रदान की है। pic.twitter.com/LUBrhkXGHN — BJP (@BJP4India) May 29, 2022

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe whose tenures are ending did not feature in the BJP's first list of candidates.

The name of BJP general secretary Dushyant Gautam, who was a Rajya Sabha member from Haryana, was also missing from the first list of candidates.

The party has given a ticket to former MLA Krishan Lal Panwar from Haryana.

Kavita Patidar will be the party's nominee from Madhya Pradesh, Ghanshyam Tiwari from Rajasthan, and Kalpana Saini from Uttarakhand.

From Bihar, the party has fielded Satish Chandra Dubey and Shambhu Sharan Patel.

Union Commerce & Industry Minister Goyal and Anil Sukhdevrao Bonde have been nominated from Maharashtra, according to a BJP release.

Union Finance Minister Sitharaman and actor-turned-politician Jaggesh will be the party's nominees from Karnataka.

Elections will be held on June 10 to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August. The last date for filing nominations is May 31.