Rajya Sabha polls: 7 Union ministers among 8 members BJP has re-nominated; Arun Jaitley moves from Gujarat to Uttar Pradesh

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will contest the Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh.

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday renominated eight retiring members including seven ministers for the March 23 Rajya Sabha polls.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been nominated from Uttar Pradesh while Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has been shifted to Madhya Pradesh along with Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot.

Health Minister JP Nadda has been renominated from Himachal Pradesh and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has been renominated from Bihar. Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala and Minister of State for Chemical and Fertilizer Mansukh Bhai Mandaviya have been renominated from Gujarat.

Besides these seven ministers, the BJP has renominated its General Secretary Bhupender Yadav from Rajasthan. 

The BJP, on its own, can send back only one of the two retiring members - Prasad and Pradhan - from Bihar. It opted to renominate Prasad from the state and decided to shift Pradhan to MP.

List of BJP candidates for Rajya Sabha elections 2018 - https://t.co/VZhWePA3PU pic.twitter.com/B58OHWYNVd

— BJP (@BJP4India) March 7, 2018

On the other hand, Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Wednesday nominated senior journalist Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, academician Achyuta Samanta and party spokesperson Prasanta Nanda as its nominees for the ensuing Rajya Sabha elections from the state.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced the names of the nominees. Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, the son-in-law of former Odisha CM JB Patnaik and editor of a leading Odia daily, and Samanta, the founder of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), were inducted into the party on Wednesday.

The ruling BJD is set to win all the three Rajya Sabha seats since the party has 118 MLAs in the House of 147. A candidate requires at least 37 first preference votes to get elected to the Upper House.

The Opposition Congress has 15 MLAs, while the BJP has 10 legislators.

Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election Bhimrao Ambedkar filed his nomination papers on Wednesday.

(With Agency inputs)