The BJP Parliamentary Board on Wednesday nominated party president Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani as party candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat. The party nominated Sampatiya Uikey, a tribal leader from Mandla district, as a candidate in Madhya Pradesh, where a by-election had been necessitated following the death of Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave.
The Board’s secretary, Health Minister J.P. Nadda, made the announcement at the party headquarters here amid an unfolding political crisis in Bihar.
BJP sources said that while the party had not announced an official candidate for the third Rajya Sabha seat in Gujarat, for which the Congress has enough numbers and nominated its senior leader Ahmed Patel, it could support an Independent candidate.
A senior party general secretary said, “The Independent candidate should be strong enough to effect defections from the Congress. Let us see tomorrow [Thursday].”
Cross-voting in Cong.
Sources said the candidate could be a relative of the former Leader of the the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly Shankar Sinh Vaghela. During the presidential elections, 11 MLAs of the Congress had cross-voted in favour of President Ram Nath Kovind.
Sources said Mr. Shah’s Rajya Sabha nomination was “nothing more than a signal that he did not want to fight the Assembly polls in Gujarat this year (he is an MLA from Naranpura).”