BJP to field several Rajya Sabha faces in Lok Sabha polls

New Delhi: Several BJP Rajya Sabha MPs and senior ministers are gearing up to take the electoral plunge in the Lok Sabha polls 2024, highly placed sources said. Senior ministers such as Nirmala Sitharaman, Bhupender Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw could be contesting Lok Sabha elections this term.

Party sources said that senior ministers of the Modi cabinet who have been in the Rajya Sabha and whose terms are either ending or coming to an end have been asked to name atleast three seats that they are comfortable fighting elections from. Through this system, there is a strong possibility of two senior ministers contesting from Bangalore.

While IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, whose Rajya Sabha term ended on Wednesday, could be fielded from Bangalore Central, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman could be fielded from Bangalore South, a seat that is held by party’s young turk Tejaswi Surya.

“We may have lost (the assembly elections) in Karnataka but Lok Sabha is another battle altogether. Senior and popular faces might contest from Bangalore’s four seats,” a senior party leader from the state said on conditions of anonymity. The BJP had won 25 of the state’s 28 seats in 2019.

The party can also field railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw from Rajasthan, labour minister Bhupender Yadav from a seat in Haryana, V Muraleedharan from Kerala’s Attingal, and education minister Dharmendra Pradhan from Odisha, sources said. P Muralidhar could also be asked to contest said sources.

The party, in line with its tradition, is likely to field new faces in atleast 30% of the 543 seats in the coming elections, a general secretary of the party said.

The BJP has been holding meetings across all its 543 Lok Sabha segments as well as all assembly seats in the last few days. Sitting MPs of the party and MLAs of the party that come under the MP seats, as well as senior leaders in the seats where the party does not have an MP have been part of these meetings, the general secretary quoted above said.