The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday announced its president Amit Shah as one of the two candidates in upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat. Shah, currently a legislator in Gujarat, will be making his debut in Parliament once he is elected, given the numbers the ruling BJP enjoys in the state assembly. Union Minister Smriti Irani, currently a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, has been re-nominated for the other seat.
The announcements were made by Union Minister J.P. Nadda after a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board here on Wednesday evening.
Nadda also announced the candidature of Sampatia Uike, a woman tribal leader from Mahakoshal region, from Madhya Pradesh in a by-election to the Rajya Sabha from the state.
Of the total 11 Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat, the term of three — Smriti Irani and Dilipbhai Pandya (both BJP) and Congress' Ahmed Patel — is coming to an end on 18 August.
The Congress has already announced that Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will file his nomination papers in Gandhinagar on Thursday. The BJP has 121 MLAs in the 182-member Assembly while the Congress 57 members. The Congress needs the support of 47 of them to get its candidate through.
