New Delhi:With Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi not listed in the four fresh Rajya Sabha nominees announced by the BJP on Monday, the party has excluded Muslims from its nominations for the upcoming elections. After announcing the initial listing of 18 candidates on Sunday, the ruling party released the list of four more candidates late on Monday evening, taking the total number of candidates listed so far to 22. In the most recently released list, the BJP's OBC wing chief K Laxman has been fielded from Uttar Pradesh, Sumitra Valmiki from Madhya Pradesh, Lal Singh Sirhoya from Karnataka and Mithilesh Kumar from Uttar Pradesh.
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The list of Rajya Sabha candidates declared so far by the saffron party has been welling up some political stir as several prominent BJP leaders, including senior leaders Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Prakash Javadekar and OP Mathur, have not been included in the list. However, the listings reflect the caste dynamics that the party has taken into consideration although the nominations are not necessarily popular faces.
The Rajya Sabha elections are scheduled to be held on June 10, just a month before the Presidential election. The candidates will be fighting to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August. The last date for filing nominations is May 31.
