Jammu,: The BJP on Saturday announced that it will contest all Rajya Sabha seats scheduled for election on October 24.
BJP spokesperson Sunil Sethi said, “We have decided to contest all seats and are fielding three candidates.”
The party will field one candidate each for the first two seats, while only one candidate will be nominated for the remaining two seats, which will see a single election.
The first two candidates are expected to contest symbolically against the ruling National Conference-led alliance, which is likely to win these seats comfortably. For the other two seats, the BJP is likely to field a heavyweight candidate, where it has a strong chance of success.
By contesting all seats, the BJP ensures an election for the first two seats, which traditionally went uncontested in the past.
Addressing a press conference in Jammu, Sethi emphasized that the focus was on identifying the qualities needed in candidates to effectively represent the party in the Rajya Sabha, rather than selecting specific individuals. He added that the core group’s recommendations would be forwarded to the party high command.
As reported earlier, frontrunners for the BJP’s Rajya Sabha tickets include Sunil Sethi, former state president Ravinder Raina, and former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh.
Currently, the National Conference-led alliance holds 53 seats in the House, the BJP has 28, and the remaining seven belong to non-BJP opposition members.
The meeting was attended by Union Minister Jitendra Singh and BJP national general secretary and J&K in-charge Tarun Chugh. Leader of Opposition Sunil Kumar Sharma, however, was not present.
