New Delhi, March 4 (IANS). Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released the list of names of its candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra. BJP has declared four leaders including National General Secretary Vinod Tawde and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale as candidates.
Apart from Vinod Tawde and Ramdas Athawale, names of Maya Chintaman Evenate and Ramrao Kudkute are also included in the list of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Earlier on Tuesday, BJP released the list of nine candidates including its national president Nitin Naveen for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections. The party announced the names of Nitin Naveen and Shivesh Kumar from Bihar, Tersh Gowala and Jogen Mohan from Assam, Lakshmi Verma from Chhattisgarh, Sanjay Bhatia from Haryana, Manmohan Samal and Sujit Kumar from Odisha and Rahul Sinha from West Bengal.
On February 18, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had announced the schedule of biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha to fill 37 vacant seats from 10 states.
According to the Commission, voting will take place from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on March 16 and counting of votes will take place at 5:00 pm on the same day. The tenure of 37 members of the State Council elected from 10 states is due to expire in April 2026.
In view of the upcoming vacancies, the Commission has prepared a detailed time table for the electoral process. The election notification was issued on 26 February. The last date for filing nominations has been set for March 5, while the scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on March 6.
Candidates will have the option to withdraw their nomination till March 9.
The Commission has clarified that only integrated purple colored pens with pre-determined specifications, which will be provided by the Returning Officer, will be valid for marking preferences on ballot papers.
The Commission has clarified that no other writing instrument will be allowed for this purpose.
Observers will be deployed to monitor the entire process to ensure that the elections are conducted in a transparent and fair manner.
The members whose tenure is expiring represent the states of Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana.
–IANS
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