The BJP on Monday announced its nominees for six Rajya Sabha seats, including Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu from Andhra Pradesh, party vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe from Maharashtra and journalist M.J. Akbar from Madhya Pradesh.
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A social media campaign was launched against Mr Naidu’s nomination on the ground that he had not done enough for Karnataka from where he secured three Rajya Sabha terms.
Accompanied by former state Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, MPCC president Ashok Chavan, former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and other party leaders, Chidambaram filed the papers at the Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai.
Except for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, no other party has made its intentions clear on fighting the polls.
Analysts say that the Congress can get help from the BSP, which has a few votes to spare after its two candidates are elected; Mayawati’s party helped the Congress in Uttarakhand.
The Congress will continue to remain single-largest party in the 245-member House, but the BJP will narrow the gap. On Sunday the party had renominated Anil Dave, as party candidate from the state. It also wanted to have the benefit of hosting the rail minister from the state.
The BJP had moved Union Minister of State Nirmala Sitaraman from Andhra to Karnataka amid speculations that due to serious differences between the two alliance partners over the special category status issue, TDP was unwilling to leave any RS seat to it partner.
Sources said Prabhu’s name was likely to figure in the second list.
Out of the total 57 seats, a majority of 14 each belong to BJP and Congress. He was elected to the Upper House from Jharkhand last time.
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The party has not yet announced the name of the second candidate from Haryana, with two seats now occupied by Union Ministers Birender Singh and Suresh Prabhu falling vacant in August.
