Rajya Sabha polls: BJP nominates 11 fresh faces, drops two union ministers

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Jun 5, 2026: With the deadline for filing nominations approaching, both the BJP and the Congress on Thursday announced their candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

Amid speculation of a possible reshuffle in the Narendra Modi-led Union government, the BJP dropped all its sitting Rajya Sabha MPs whose terms are ending, including Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian, and fielded 11 new candidates for the elections across six states.

The Congress, meanwhile, released its list of nominees, renominating party president Mallikarjun Kharge from Karnataka. The party has allotted the state’s other two Rajya Sabha seats to AICC secretary Mansoor Ali Khan and Congress media and publicity department chairman Pawan Khera.

The BJP has, however, not yet announced its candidate for Karnataka, where political attention is focused on former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda, whose Rajya Sabha term has ended. Although the BJP is expected to back Deve Gowda for another term, delays in the announcement have fuelled speculation over whether the party will ultimately allocate the seat to its ally.

Congress sources said Kharge will file his nomination papers on Friday at the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is expected to accompany him during the filing.

In Tamil Nadu, the lone Rajya Sabha seat allotted to the Congress by the TVK is likely to go to the party’s data analytics chief Praveen Chakravarthy.

The BJP has also denied a fresh term to Union Minister George Kurian, considered one of the party’s prominent Christian faces in Kerala. In Rajasthan, the party has nominated former Haryana BJP president Satish Poonia, while Alka Gurjar, one of two women candidates in the BJP list, has also been fielded from the state.

In Manipur, the BJP has nominated state president A. Sharda Devi, while in Odisha it has fielded Debashish Samantaray, who recently resigned from the Rajya Sabha and quit the Biju Janata Dal.

For Gujarat, the BJP has nominated Rajubhai Shukla, Mukeshbhai Rathwa, Mansingh Parmar and Jitendra Meghjibhai Kanzariya. Tai Tagak has been fielded from Arunachal Pradesh.

Rajya Sabha elections for seats in 10 states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Manipur, are scheduled to be held on June 18. A lone seat in Odisha, vacated following Samantaray’s resignation, will also go to the polls on the same day. The last date for filing nominations is June 6.