The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will nominate to the Rajya Sabha its national president J.P. Nadda from Gujarat, Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L. Murugan from Odisha and Madhya Pradesh respectively, and new entrant and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan from his home State, the party announced on Wednesday. The biennial polls are scheduled for February 27.
The nomination of Mr. Murugan and Mr. Vaishnaw makes them the only two exceptions to the BJP high command’s decision that Union Ministers completing their terms in the Rajya Sabha must now fight the Lok Sabha polls. That list included Ministers Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Bhupendra Yadav, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mansukh Mandaviya, and Parshottam Rupala.
