New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah at the party’s parliamentary board meeting in New Delhi on Monday. PTI Photo by Atul Yadav (PTI7_17_2017_000347B)
BJP chief Amit Shah and Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani will contest the Rajya Sabha elections, confirmed Union Minister JP Nadda after BJP’s Parliamentary Party meeting on Wednesday evening. Both the leaders will contest from Gujarat where three seats will soon fall vacant. Elections are going to be held on August 8.
Irani was recently made the Information and Broadcasting Minister after the post fell vacant following the resignation of Venkaiah Naidu, who was made NDA’s vice presidential candidate.
Earlier in the day, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel filed his nomination for Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat. Patel is already a member of the Upper House of Parliament from the state. If re-elected, the 67-year-old would become a member of the House for the fifth time.
Veteran leader Shankarsinh Vaghela, who recently quit the Congress, has said he was ready to support Ahmed Patel in the upcoming Rajya Sabha poll in Gujarat, if the party’s state in-charge, Ashok Gehlot, took back his allegations against him.
Of the 11 Rajya Sabha members from the state, the term of three — Smriti Irani and Dilipbhai Pandya (both BJP) and Patel (Congress) — comes to an end on August 18. The Congress has 57 MLAs in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly. It needs the support of 47 of them to get its candidate through. The main opposition party in the state also has the support of the two NCP MLAs and the lone JD(U) member.
