18 BJP candidates for RS Polls

New Delhi, Mar 10 (UNI) Senior BJP Leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Kalraj Mishra are among the 18 candidates announced today by the BJP to contest the bienniel elections to the Rajya Sabha from 10 states.

The names were cleared by the Central Election Committee which met under the Chairmanship of party President Rajnath Singh and attended by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and other top leaders.

Ms Swaraj has been shifted to Madhya Pradesh from Uttaranchal while Mr Jaitley have been renominated from Gujarat, Mr Ravishankar Prasad, Bihar and BJP Vice President Bal Apte from Maharashtra.

Other leaders, who have been renominated are Mr Vinay Katiyar, Uttar Pradesh, Mr Vikram Verma, Madhya Pradesh and Mr S S Ahluwalia, Jharkhand. The party also brought back Mr Ramdas Aggarwal from Rajasthan after a brief gap.

BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan said the party had not decided yet on the second seats in Bihar and Karnataka where the party had surplus votes but not enough to win the seat on its own strength.

In Karnataka the party has nominated former Karnataka Minister K B Shanappa as its candidate while it has taken no decision on fielding the candidate for the second seat.

Following is the list of candidates cleared by the party.

Mr Bal Apte (Maharashtra), Mr S S Ahluwalia, Jharkhand, Mr Gopalji Vyas, Chhatisgarh, Mr Kalraj Mishra and Mr Vinay Katiyar, UP, Mrs Sushma Swaraj, Mr Vikaram Verma, Mr Narayan Singh Kesari (SC) and Mrs Anusuya Uikey (ST) (MP), Mr Rudra Narayan Pani and Mr Bhagirat Majhi (byelection), Mr K B Shanappa, Karnataka, Mr Krishanlal Valmiki and Mr Ramdas Agarwal (Rajasthan), Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad (Bihar), Mr Arun Jaitley, Mr Kanjhi Bhai Patel and Mr Vijay Bhai Rupani (Gujarat).

Mr Majhi had been fielded to fill the vacancy with the expulsion of Mr Chhatarpal Singh.

UNI MCN/KAS MA KN2034