Contrary to earlier reports that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be fielding senior State leaders like Eknath Khadse for the third Rajya Sabha seat from Maharashtra, the party chose Dr. Bhagavant Karad as its candidate along with Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale and former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Udayanraje Bhosale.

Congress has fielded former Lok Sabha MP and young OBC leader from Maharashtra Rajeev Satav while Shiv Sena is likely to announce the name of party spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) too has refrained from announcing its second candidate and will be declaring the name on March 13, last day of filing nomination.

Both Mr. Athawale and Mr. Bhosale filed their nomination papers on Thursday. Of the three BJP candidates, Mr. Karad is the only original BJP leader. Mr. Bhosale had contested the Lok Sabha bypolls last year after resigning from NCP but he lost to Shrinivas Patil. In a bid to rehabilitate him politically, the party had to deny a ticket to two sitting MPs, Amar Sable and Sanjay Kakde.

The decision to field Mr. Satav is seen as an attempt by Congress to promote the young OBC leader from Maharashtra who is also in-charge of Gujarat.

Election for the seven Rajya Sabha seats will be held on March 26. Those whose term ends on April 2 include Mr. Pawar, Mr. Athawale, Hussain Dalwai (Congress), Rajkumar Dhoot (Shiv Sena), Amar Sable (BJP), Majeed Memon (NCP), and Sanjay Kakade (BJP-backed Independent).

Ruling alliance members Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP can comfortably win a seat each, as a single candidate needs 37 votes.