BJP only party to send back its retiring Muslim MPs to Rajya Sabha

58 MPs are retiring from the Upper House.

File Photo

Delhi: With 58 MPs retiring from the Upper House, Bharatiya Janata Party is the only party to resend its retiring parliamentarians to the Rajya Sabha.

Out of the 58, AA Tak and Mohsina Kidwai are from the Congress party, MJ Akbar and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi belong to the BJP, Salim Ansari is a BSP leader and Gulam Rasool Balyawi belongs to the JD(U).

Congress party has not announced the name of its retiring Muslims MPs so far.

P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Jairam Ramesh, Vivek Tankha, Oscar Fernandez, Ambika Soni, Chhaya Verma and Pradeep Tamta are the names finalised by the Congress party.

Meanwhile, BSP has announced the name of party's Brahmin face Satish Mishra and Ashok Siddharth for the Upper House.

And Samajwadi Party has also not picked any Muslim candidate for the Rajya Sabha.

The SP has two MPs retiring and can send back seven to the Upper House. ( In 403-member UP Assembly ruling SP has 229 MLAs, BSP 80, BJP 41, Congress 29, besides some smaller parties and Independents. Each candidate requires 37 votes for a win.)

Janata Dal (United) leader Gulam Rasool Balyawi too will not return as the party has announced the candidature of Sharad Yadav and RCP Singh.

On the other hand, RJD has fielded Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter Misa Bharti and lawyer Ram Jethmalani.

Thus, BJP is the only party to send back its two retiring Muslim MPs - Naqvi (from Jharkhand) and Akbar (from Madhya Pradesh) to the Rajya Sabha.

Elections for Upper House from 15 states are due to be held on June 11. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on June 1 and the last date for withdrawal is June 3.