Chandigarh, Mar 5 (PTI) BJP candidate Sanjay Bhatia and Congress’ Karamvir Singh Boudh filed their nominations here on Thursday for the Rajya Sabha poll for the two seats falling vacant from Haryana.
The nominations were filed on the last day of filing.
Two RS seats from Haryana are falling vacant as BJP members Kiran Choudhry and Ram Chander Jangra are set to complete their terms on April 9.
BJP candidate Bhatia was accompanied by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Haryana BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli and other party leaders.
Prior to that Bhatia met CM Saini at his residence here.
Saini congratulated Bhatia for being declared as the Rajya Sabha candidate.
“I met senior BJP leader and former MP from Karnal, respected Sanjay Bhatia ji at Sant Kabir Kutir and extended my heartiest congratulations and best wishes to him on being declared the Rajya Sabha candidate from Haryana. Your vast experience and dedication towards public service will play an important role in furthering the interests of the state in the Upper House,” Saini posted on X.
Bhatia, while thanking the party leadership for selecting him as a Rajya Sabha candidate, said he will try to live up to the expectations of the people and his party.
Speaking to reporters before filing his nomination, Boudh thanked party leader Rahul Gandhi for showing faith in him.
He said he will try to live up to the expectations of the people and raise people’s issues in Rajya Sabha.
He was accompanied by Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, State Congress President Rao Narendra Singh and Congress general secretary in-charge of Haryana B K Hariprasad.
On the last day of filing nominations, the Congress announced Boudh’s name.
Surjewala said by nominating such a person to the Rajya Sabha, the Congress has again proved that it not only stands by the exploited and deprived section but also gives priority to a person who is working at the ground level.
Boudh, a retired Haryana government employee, has also been a Dalit activist who has raised issues pertaining to the community on various platforms. He is currently the coordinator of the National Scheduled Castes department of the party.
Boudh was an aspirant for the Congress ticket in the 2024 Haryana Assembly polls from Mullana reserve assembly segment. However, at that time the party gave the ticket to Pooja Chaudhary, wife of party’s Ambala MP Varun Chaudhary, and she went on to win the seat.
Sources said that by fielding Boudh for the RS polls, the party has tried to balance caste equations.
In the Congress’ Haryana unit, Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Hooda comes from the Jat community while State Congress chief Rao Narender Singh is from the OBC community.
Boudh had also served as chairman of the SC/ST confederation of employees.He had also been appointed the coordinator for Dalit outreach for previous assembly elections in the state by Congress.
Besides Gandhi, Boudh also thanked the Congress leadership, including K C Venugopal and party president Mallikarjun Kharge, for the nomination.
He also thanked the state leadership, including Hooda, Kumari Selja, Birender Singh, Randeep Singh Surjewala, state unit chief Rao Narender Singh and party general secretary in-charge of Haryana Hariprasad.
Boudh said that the party leadership has expressed their confidence in a common worker and entrusted him a big responsibility.
He said Rahul Gandhi and the entire Congress always stand with farmers, labourers, Dalits, poor and weaker sections and raise their voice.
In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the ruling BJP has 48 MLAs, Congress 37, the INLD has two, while three Independents support the ruling party, with 31 votes each required for the two candidates to make it to Rajya Sabha from Haryana.
BJP’s Bhatia (58) is considered a confidant of Union Minister and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
Notifications for the polls were issued on February 26. Polling, if required, will be held on March 16 between 9 am and 4 pm, and votes will be counted from 5 pm the same day.
The last date of filing nomination is March 5. Scrutiny of nominations will be held on March 6, while the last date for the withdrawal of candidature is March 9.
According to the Election Commission’s poll schedule issued recently, 37 Rajya Sabha seats fall vacant on April 2 and 9, from 10 states, including Haryana, Maharashtra, Himachal, and Tamil Nadu.
In August 2024, Kiran Choudhry, a former minister, was elected unopposed in the Rajya Sabha bypoll from Haryana. She had joined the BJP ahead of the October 2024 assembly elections after quitting the Congress.
The bypoll was necessitated after the Congress’ Deepender Singh Hooda was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rohtak. His Rajya Sabha term was to end on April 9. PTI SUN VSD DV DV
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