BJP announces 11 Rajya Sabha nominees; Satish Poonia gets Rajasthan berth, Tarun Chugh from Madhya Pradesh

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced its candidates for the 2026 Rajya Sabha biennial elections and the Odisha by-election. As per the list from the BJP, Satish Poonia has been fielded from Rajasthan and Tarun Chugh has been fielded from Madhya Pradesh. Tai Tagak will fight from Arunachal Pradesh, while Rajubhai Shukla, Mukeshbhai Rathwa, Mansingh Parmar, and Jitendra Meghjibhai Kanzariya will contest from Gujarat. Tarun Chugh and Rajneesh Agrawal have been fielded from Madhya Pradesh, and A Sharda Devi has been fielded from Manipur.

According to the BJP candidates list, Dr Alka Gurjar and Dr Satish Poonia have been fielded from Rajasthan, and Debashish Samantaray has been fielded from Odisha for Rajya Sabha bypolls.

The announcement of the candidates from the BJP comes ahead of the Rajya Sabha biennial elections scheduled on June 18, with the BJP aiming to retain its presence in the Upper House of Parliament.

The selection of the candidates followed a high-level Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to maximise the NDA’s numerical strength in the Upper House of Parliament. The candidates were also approved by the BJP Central Election Committee and announced by National General Secretary Arun Singh.

It is interesting to note that the BJP has a comfortable majority in these states, which is likely to ensure that its candidates win their seats without any impediments. It should be noted that the biennial elections will be held for 24 seats across 10 states, and bypolls for three crucial seats in Maharashtra, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu will also be held on the same day.

EC announces polls for 24 Rajya Sabha seats on June 18
Last month, the Election Commission announced polls for 24 Rajya Sabha seats on June 18 following retirement of incumbents, including former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Digvijay Singh. The EC said the elections for the Rajya Sabha seats will be held in 10 states where the incumbents are retiring on different dates beginning June 21 to July 19.

The Rajya Sabha elections will be held in four seats each in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, three seats each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two seats in Jharkhand and one seat each in Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. The last date for filing nominations is June 8.

Among those who are retiring from Rajya Sabha include Gowda, Congress president Kharge (both from Karnataka), union ministers Ravneet Singh (Rajasthan) and George Kurian (Madhya Pradesh, former chief minister Digvijay Singh, Congress leader Shaktisinhji Govil among others.

The EC also announced bypolls for one seat each for the council of states from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra, the council seat has fallen vacant following resignation from the seat by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, who has since been elected to the state assembly.

Besides Ravneet Singh, the members whose tenure is ending in Rajasthan are Neeraj Dangi of Congress and Rajendra Gehlot of the BJP. Rajasthan has a total of 10 Rajya Sabha seats. BJP and Congress currently have five members each. Given the present strength of parties in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, the BJP is expected to win two of the three seats, while the Congress is likely to secure one seat. The BJP has 118 MLAs in the Assembly, while the Congress has 67 members. The BSP has two MLAs, Bharat Adivasi Party four, Rashtriya Lok Dal one and Independents eight.

Elections for 24 Rajya Sabha seats: Check the full schedule