George Kurian(L) and Ranveer Singh Bittu
Credit: PTI, DH Photo
New Delhi: Among the faces that the BJP will send to the Rajya Sabha are former Union minister Rameshwar Teli, Haryana MLA Kiran Choudhury and Mamata Mohanta, who has joined the BJP recently from the Biju Janata Dal, the party announced on Tuesday. Two union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian who are not members of any house of Parliament have also been accommodated in the upper house.
Union ministers George Kurien and Ravneet Singh Bittu have been elected from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, respectively.
From Assam, the party is sending four-term MLA Mission Ranjan Das to the Upper House, besides Teli. Kiran Choudhary will be elected from Haryana; the legislator tendered her resignation from the assembly hours ahead of the announcement.
The party is sending Bar Council of India Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra from Bihar, Madha Lok Sabha MP Dhairyashil Patil from Maharashtra, Tripura state unit president Rajib Bhattacharjee from his own state to the Rajya Sabha, besides Mohanta who will be elected from home state Odisha.
There was speculation that the party might send senior party leaders including Smriti Irani, Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Rajdeep Roy to the Upper House. Both Kiran Chaudhary and Bittu had left the Congress in the last few months to join the BJP.
Elections to 12 Rajya Sabha seats were announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) last week which will be held on September 3. As many as 10 vacancies arose due to the resignation of several members who had contested Lok Sabha elections. Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Sarbananda Sonowal and Jyotiraditya Scindia, as well as Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Deepender Hooda, BJP’s Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, RJD’s Misa Bharti, had contested the Lok Sabha polls and were elected to the Lower House.