Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released the list of two candidates for the Rajya Sabha bypolls- cabinet minister Sarbananda Sonowal and MOS L Murugan in Assam and Madhya Pradesh respectively.
Sonowal is the union minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Ayush. Murugan is the junior minister for Information and Broadcasting. In Assam, the Rajya Sabha seat fell vacant after Biswajit Daimary resigned and in Madhya Pradesh, the vacancy emerged as Thawar Chand Gehlot resigned following his appointment as Karnataka governor.
Sonowal was recently brought into the union Cabinet during the reshuffle on July 7. Earlier, he was the chief minister of Assam and he vacated his position for Himanta Biswa Sarma in May 2021. Murugan was the BJP president of the Tamil Nadu unit. Both the leaders needed to be elected to the Upper House before the period of six months that would end early next year.
The vacancies to the Rajya Sabha and the subsequent election were announced by the Election Commission on September 7 And the polls for the same would take place on October 4.
Six seats fell vacant- two from Tamil Nadu, one from Bengal, one from Assam, one from Madhya Pradesh and one from Maharashtra. While DMK has announced the names of two candidates from Tamil Nadu, TMC gave the Bengal seat to Sushmita Dev. The Maharashtra seat which fell vacant after the demise of Rajiv Satav is yet to be announced.
