Jaitley won’t represent state in RS after 18 yrs

Gandhinagar: Arun Jaitley, the Union finance minister, who has represented Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha since April 2000, has now been nominated by the BJP to represent Uttar Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha, as the BJP does not have enough seats in the Gujarat assembly to nominate him for his fourth term from here.
Arun Jaitley represented Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha seat first when he was appointed minister of state (MoS) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

The BJP on Wednesday announced Jaitley’s nomination from UP. It chose to renominate Mansukh Mandaviya (MoS, road transport and highways, shipping, chemicals and fertilizers) and Parshottam Rupala (MoS, panchayati raj, agriculture and farmer welfare) on two seats it does have.

Shankar Vegad, the fourth BJP MP whose term expired, will not return to the Rajya Sabha. Vegad on Wednesday wrote to Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani, requesting to not be nominated and that the party give a chance to other members.

Mandaviya, a Leuva Patel and Rupala, a Kadva Patel, have sizeable followings and have contributed greatly to the state BJP. Hence, it was expected that party not to upset them.

BJP likely to play safe to avoid fiasco as in August 2017

BJP has nominated only two leaders for the Rajya Sabha, unlike in August 2017 when it nominated a Congress turncoat, Balwantsinh Rajput, to stand against Congress stalwart Ahmed Patel, despite do not having sufficient numbers to get a third candidate elected. In August 2017, 14 Congress MLAs including the then leader of Opposition (LOP) Shankersinh Vaghela, voted in favour of BJP. However, Ahmed Patel was still able to get elected to the Rajya Sabha. Two votes by Congress MLAs in favour of the BJP were also been invalidated. BJP president had then camped in teh state for long, to try and defeat Ahmed Patel. This time, the BJP is unlikely to nominate a third candidate to force an election.

Congress may pick Pitroda for Rajya Sabha

For one of its two Rajya Sabha seats, the Gujarat Congress may nominate Sam Pitroda, the USA-based technocrat and close aide of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Pitroda is also close to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, according to key Congress sources. Besides state unit president Bharatsinh Solanki, 22 Congress members have made a claim for the Rajya Sabha seat.