NEW DELHI: Several senior leaders of the BJP are set to retire from the Rajya Sabha in 2024. As many as 56 leaders, including BJP chief JP Nadda, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, Health Minister Mansukh Madaviya and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, will complete their Rajya Sabha tenure in April.
The Election Commission of India has announced that the elections for the membership of the Upper House of the Parliament will be conducted on February 27. The BJP may field some of them in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier suggested in August that Rajya Sabha leaders should contest Lok Sabha elections.
Uttar Pradesh will have the highest number of vacancies of 10 seats, followed by Maharashtra and Bihar (six each), Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal (five each), Karnataka and Gujarat (four each), Odisha, Telangana, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh (three each), Jharkhand and Rajasthan (two each), and Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Chhattisgarh (one each).
In Maharashtra, the Rajya Sabha elections will be keenly watched after the political realignment in the state due to splits in the NCP and the Shiv Sena.
