The Bharatiya Janata Party has declared its list of candidates for forthcoming Rajya Sabha bypolls on September 3, 2024. With an eye on both consolidating its strength in the Upper House and thereby an upper hand in key state elections, the BJP has come up with nine such candidates from different states that would underline the party’s overall electoral strategy.

Political Realignment In Haryana

It lists the name of Haryana’s Kiran Choudhary, who recently switched sides to BJP from Congress. She is a frontline politician and daughter-in-law of the late former chief minister of Haryana, Bansi Lal. The BJP nominated her amid growing speculation about their strategy for the forthcoming Haryana Assembly elections. Her defection from the Congress, citing ‘humiliation’ of herself and her daughter, former MP Shruti Choudhary, is a tectonic shift in Haryana’s political dynamics. The BJP strategically fields her candidacy to leverage her influence among the Jat community in Bhiwani and the surrounding areas, aiming to gain an advantage in the fiercely contested assembly elections.

BJP’s Strategic Candidate Moves In Bihar And Odisha

The BJP has fielded a dual candidate in Bihar. While the party has officially declared Manan Kumar Mishra, president of the Bar Council of India, it has also backed the leader of Rashtriya Lok Morcha Upendra Kushwaha. The parties made the nominations after Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Misa Bharati and BJP’s Vivek Thakur resigned following their election to the Lower House. BJP’s decisions in Bihar reflect its zeal to maintain a firm grip in the state’s political firmament and may prove to be significant in altering the power equations there.

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The BJP has fielded Mamata Mohanta, a former Rajya Sabha member of BJD, who resigned from her seat in the Upper House and the primary membership of BJD in July. Her candidature is a continuous process of the BJP to encroach on the monopoly of the BJD in Odisha and its strength in the Rajya Sabha. This move may have further destabilized the BJD, reducing its strength in the Rajya Sabha while increasing that of the BJP.

New Faces To Strengthen BJP’s Base

Other BJP selections include Union Ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu from Rajasthan and George Kurian from Madhya Pradesh, who are most likely to build the party’s presence in these two states. The BJP has fielded Mission Ranjan Das and former Union Minister Rameswar Teli in Assam. The BJP views Teli’s nomination as a recognition for his resignation from the Lok Sabha seat, which allowed the election of former Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. The party inducted Das into the ministry to appease long-time party workers and RSS loyalists in the state.

BJP’s Tactical Candidates For State Dominance

In Tripura, the BJP is fielding its state unit president, Rajib Bhattacharjee, to seal its foothold in the northeastern state. Maharashtra fields the candidature of Dhairyashil Mohan Patil, a former MLA from the Peasant and Workers Party of India who joined the BJP in February 2023. The candidature of Patil is viewed as a deft move of the BJP to consolidate its position in Maharashtra ahead of the state assembly elections.

Rajya Sabha By-Elections Redefine State Politics

These by-poll elections will fill up 12 Rajya Sabha vacancies in nine states, many of which have fallen vacant due to the election of various prominent members, including Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Sarbananda Sonowal, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, to the Lok Sabha. By-polls are also held in one seat each in Telangana and Odisha, where changes in party allegiance have altered the political scenario.

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