Party chief, Cong's former Maha CM among BJP's RS candidates

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday nominated party chief JP Nadda, two sitting Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan, and recently inducted senior leader Ashok Chavan to the Rajya Sabha, naming 12 candidates for the February 27 polls to the Upper House.

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

With this, the party has announced 28 candidates for the 56 seats that go to the polls. All of them are likely to be elected unopposed.

The BJP named Nadda from Gujarat, Union railway and IT minister Vaishnaw from Odisha where the ruling Biju Janata Dal is backing his candidature, Chavan from Maharashtra, and Union minister of state for fisheries, animal husbandry and dairy Murugan from Madhya Pradesh. The list signalled that the generational shift effected by the party since 2014 will continue with newer faces platformed at the state and central level. Of the 28 candidates announced, only four - Nadda, Vaishnaw, Murugan and party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi (from Uttar Pradesh) - will contest for a second term.

In Maharashtra, where six seats are up for grabs, the party named Chavan, who joined the BJP from the Congress a day earlier, former lawmaker Medha Kulkarni and long-time Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member Ajit Gopchade. The BJP's ally, the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, named former Congress leader Milind Deora as its nominee. The Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party named former Union minister Praful Patel as its nominee.