The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced candidates for the by-elections on nine Rajya Sabha seats. The party has made Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu its Rajya Sabha candidate from Rajasthan. Union Minister George Kurien has been given a ticket from Madhya Pradesh. Manan Kumar Mishra from Bihar, Kiran Chaudhary from Haryana, and Dhairyasheel Patil from Maharashtra will be BJP candidates in the Rajya Sabha by-elections.
BJP is sending Mamata Mohanta from Odisha, Rameshwar Teli and Mission Ranjan Das from Assam and Rajiv Bhattacharya from Tripura to the Upper House. In the list of BJP candidates for the Rajya Sabha by-elections, there is a bet on turncoats and also an exercise to balance the cadre. What is special in the list of BJP candidates?
Minister in the minister’s seat
Jyotiraditya Scindia, a minister in the Modi government, was a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh. Scindia resigned from Rajya Sabha membership after winning the Lok Sabha elections from Guna parliamentary seat. In the by-election for the Rajya Sabha seat vacated by the resignation of Union Minister Scindia, BJP has fielded a Union Minister as its candidate. BJP has given ticket to Union Minister George Kurien in the by-election from this seat of Madhya Pradesh. He has been in the party since the inception of BJP in 1980 and is also a Supreme Court lawyer. Kerala BJP Vice President George Kurien had to face defeat in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Vocal for Local
The list of BJP candidates for Rajya Sabha by-elections also reflects PM Modi’s slogan of Vocal for Local. BJP has fielded local faces on the seats of most states. Except for George Kurien from Madhya Pradesh and Ravneet Bittu from Rajasthan, a leader from the same state has been made the candidate from every state. Be it Kiran Chaudhary from Haryana, Manan Kumar Mishra from Bihar or Rajiv Bhattacharya from Tripura, BJP has focused on fielding local faces. Neither by-elections are being held for any seat in the state from which Kurien and Bittu come, nor is BJP in a position to send anyone to Rajya Sabha in the assembly. In such a situation, the entry of these two Union Ministers to Rajya Sabha from another state was decided with the oath of the minister’s post.
Bet on defectors
In the by-elections for nine Rajya Sabha seats in eight states, BJP has bet on four turncoats. Two of these four are leaders who have joined from Congress. One leader each from Maharashtra’s Shetkari Kamgar Paksha and Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal who joined BJP have also been given Rajya Sabha tickets. Ravneet Singh Bittu, a strong face of Punjab Congress, joined BJP just before the Lok Sabha elections. BJP also made Bittu a candidate from Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat but he lost. Despite the defeat, Bittu was made a minister in Modi Government 3.0. BJP has made Bittu a candidate from Rajasthan.
Also read: Ravneet Bittu from Rajasthan, Kiran Chaudhary from Haryana… BJP fielded candidates for 9 Rajya Sabha seats in 8 states
The second big name among the party hoppers is Kiran Chaudhary. Kiran Chaudhary, who was once considered one of the prominent leaders of Haryana Congress, is the daughter-in-law of Bansi Lal. She joined BJP only two months ago and now the party has made her a Rajya Sabha candidate. Kiran Chaudhary is a Jat face and it is believed that by sending her to the Upper House, the party wants to send a message to the Jat voters who are said to be angry.
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Mamta Mohanta, a Rajya Sabha MP from Biju Janata Dal, had joined BJP earlier this month after resigning from the Upper House. BJP has made Mamta a candidate in the by-election on the seat vacated by her resignation. From Maharashtra, the party has given ticket to Dhairyasheel Patil from Shetkari Kamgar Paksha (PWP). Dhairyasheel joined BJP last year. Dhairyasheel became MLA by winning the election from Pen assembly seat in 2014 but he was defeated by the BJP candidate in the 2019 Maharashtra elections.
The cadre was also balanced
Along with betting on turncoats, BJP has also balanced the cadre. The party has fielded Mission Ranjan Das from Assam as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha by-election. Mission is a four-time MLA and has a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh background. BJP has fielded former Union Minister Rameshwar Teli from Assam’s second seat. Teli was a BJP MP from Dibrugarh but the party had cut his ticket in the Lok Sabha elections and fielded Sarbananda Sonowal from this seat. The party has now given Teli a Rajya Sabha seat. BJP candidate from Tripura seat Rajiv Bhattacharya is also an old RSS worker and is currently handling the party’s command in the state.
Focus on lawyers too
BJP’s focus also seems to be on sending lawyers to the Upper House in the Rajya Sabha by-elections. The party has nominated two Supreme Court lawyers. Union Minister George Kurien is also a Supreme Court lawyer and BJP candidate from Bihar Manan Kumar Mishra also practices in the Supreme Court. Manan Kumar Mishra has also been the President of the Bar Council of India.