- BJP released nine Rajya Sabha candidates for March 16 elections including Nitin Nabin
- Nabin and Shivesh Kumar are BJP's two candidates from Bihar for five vacant Rajya Sabha seats
- BJP chose veteran leader Rahul Sinha in poll-bound West Bengal
The BJP has released its first list of nine candidates for the March 16 Rajya Sabha election, and the most prominent name on it is the party's national president Nitin Nabin.
Nabin has been fielded as one of the BJP's two candidates from Bihar. Five Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar are set to become vacant. Following the BJP's big victory in the Assembly polls, the party now has the numbers to win at least two of these seats. Besides Nabin, the party has chosen Shivesh Kumar for the Upper House. A Dalit leader and former MLA, Kumar unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Sasaram. He is a general secretary in the state BJP unit.
Nabin's Rajya Sabha nomination puts an end to chatter in power corridors that the BJP chief may continue to lead the party while being a member of the state Assembly, like his predecessors Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari. But his nomination is the party leadership's signal that it will prepare for the 2029 general election under Nabin's leadership.
The BJP brass has also kept caste equations in mind in its choice of Bihar candidates, as caste arithmetic plays a key role in the state's political and electoral landscape. While Nabin is from the Kayastha upper caste, Kumar is a Dalit, balancing the math.
For poll-bound West Bengal, the BJP has nominated its long-term state leader Rahul Sinha. Sinha was Bengal BJP's face for many years before he was sidelined due to infighting. But the BJP is trying to fix internal issues as it jumps into the Bengal poll battle. Earlier, former state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh was brought back into organisational work, and now Sinha has been chosen for the Upper House.
From Assam, also poll-bound, the BJP has chosen Terash Gowalla and Jogen Mohan. While Gowalla is an MLA, Mohan is a minister in the Himanta Biswa Sarma government.
The BJP leadership has chosen Sanjay Bhatia from Haryana as a Rajya Sabha candidate. Bhatia has been an MP from Karnal, winning by a record margin in the 2019 polls. He is also a favourite for the state party chief's post. In Chhattisgarh, the BJP has chosen Laxmi Verma as a Rajya Sabha candidate. A leader from the OBC community, she has been a party spokesperson and a zila panchayat chief.
The BJP has announced two Rajya Sabha picks from Odisha in the first list of candidates. These include state party chief Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar. Samal led the party to come to power in Odisha on its own. And Kumar, a former BJD MP in Rajya Sabha, switched to the BJP in 2024 and has been given another chance.
