MP/BJP Launches Exercise for Selection of Candidates for Upcoming RS Polls in MP, General Category Nominees in Focus
Three RS seats from MP are falling vacant in June this year, necessitating the biennial polls.
Bhopal: The ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh has launched the exercise for selection of party candidates for the upcoming biennial polls to the Rajya Sabha in the state, election schedule for which is yet to be declared.
The issue was discussed at the recent core committee meeting of the state party with the leadership asking the members to suggest suitable names for nomination for the upcoming RS polls in the state, a senior BJP functionary told this newspaper on Thursday, unwilling to be quoted.
Three RS seats from MP are falling vacant in June this year, necessitating the biennial polls.
Three sitting RS MPs from MP whose tenures are ending on June 19 are Union minister George Kurien and Sumer Singh Solanki (both from BJP) and Digvijay Singh (Congress).
The ruling BJP is in a position to send two of its nominees to the RS comfortably while Congress is in a position to send one member to the Upper House, considering their respective strengths in the state Assembly.
However, Congress fears that the BJP may try to secure the third seat by engineering cross-voting in the Congress Legislature Party to manage seven votes to win the third seat.
“Our party is yet to decide if it would field a third candidate in the biennial polls in MP. But nothing can be ruled out since BJP needs to increase its strength in the Upper House”, the BJP leader said.
A strong section of BJP here feels that the party leadership may give priority to the general category candidates from the state in the selection of nominees for the upcoming RS polls in MP.
First of all, it is yet to be known if Mr. Kurien will be renominated to the RS from Madhya Pradesh to retain his berth in the Union ministry.
It will be clear only after the much-speculated reshuffle in the Union ministry.
Mr. Kurien has lost the polls in the just concluded Assembly elections in Kerala.
The other BJP MP whose term in the Upper House expires on June 19 is Sumer Singh Solanki, a tribal.
However, his renomination to the Upper House also appears not certain since another tribal leader from his district of Barwani in Madhya Pradesh, Antar Singh Arya, has been made the chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribe.
The party has given adequate representation to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and women in various organizational and official positions, and hence, the leadership is reportedly toying with the idea of giving representation to the general category in the Upper House in the upcoming RS polls in the state, a senior BJP leader in the know of things has indicated.
