File photo of senior BJP leader Vijay Goel.
Former Union Ministers CP Thakur, Satyanarayan Jatia and Vijay Goel are among seven BJP candidates announced by the party on Friday for the ensuing biennial Rajya Sabha elections.
While BJP Delhi unit chief Vijay Goel has been nominated from Rajasthan, party vice president CP Thakur has been nominated from Bihar and Satyanarayan Jatiya from Madhya Pradesh.
Mr Goel is tipped to be replaced as the Delhi unit chief and the party wants a younger face to lead the party in Delhi. He was promised a Rajya Sabha berth after Dr Harshvardhan was projected by the BJP as the party's chief ministerial candidate in the Delhi assembly elections.
The names were finalised after the meeting of the party's Central Election Committee chaired by BJP President Rajnath Singh and attended by chairman of BJP Parliamentary Party LK Advani, party's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and leaders of Opposition in both Houses Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.
Among others nominated include party vice president Prabhat Jha from Madhya Pradesh and local state BJP leader RK Singh from Bihar, besides local state leaders Ram Narain Dudi and Narayan Panchariya from Rajasthan.
The committee has authorised Rajnath Singh to hold discussions with state leaders and party incharge in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra and a decision on nominations in these states will be announced in the next two-three days.
"Discussions are going on the nominations in these three states and a decision will be taken in the next two-three days," BJP leader Ananth Kumar told reporters after the meeting that lasted over two hours.
He said the party has 18 legislators in Jharkhand, six in Odisha and five in Assam and a decision on who will BJP support in these states will be taken by Rajnath Singh, who has been authorised to act on behalf of the CEC.
Of the 55 Rajya Sabha seats for which elections are being held, BJP will get 13 seats on the basis of the strength it has in the state assemblies.
Sources say that the party is in a fix in Maharashtra as it may have to give in to RPI chief Ramdas Athawale, who has joined the NDA and is seeking a Rajya Sabha nomination. The Shiv Sena has refused to give its seat to Athawale and is asking BJP to give its seat to him. Shiv Sena chief Addhav Thackarey had met Rajnath Singh recently in this regard.
Sources say that senior party leaders will meet Athawale and Shiv Sena leaders to resolve the issue, as the fate of BJP Spokesperson Prakash Javadekar hangs in the balance till then.
There are seven Rajya Sabha vacancies in Maharashtra, with Congress and NCP bagging two each and BJP and Shiv Sena one each. There is stiff contest for the seventh seat.
The Rajya Sabha election is slated to be held on February 7 and the process of filing of nominations ends on January 28.
The BJP Central Election Committee also cleared the names of five party leaders for the State Legislative Council in Bihar.
Among them were Narendra Prasad Singh, the sitting MLC from the Tirhut Teacher constituency, Ram Kumar Singh, former MLC from Tirhut Graduate constituency, and Suresh Prasad Rai from the Darbhanga Teacher constituency.
Brahmdev Singh Yadav has been nominated from the Darbhanga Graduate constituency while Byanktesh Kumar Sharma has been nominated from the Patna Graduate constituency.