Dharmendra May Get BJP Rajya Sabha Ticket From Madhya Pradesh

Dharmendra Pradhan

Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to field Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh, party sources said on Wednesday.

In 2012, Dharmendra was elected to the Upper House from Bihar. His term will end in April.

BJP sources said the party central leadership is keen that Dharmendra, who hails from Odisha, continues in the Union ministry and would therefore give him a second stint in the House of elders. The 48-year-old is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah and should not face any problem in getting renominated, a senior party leader said.

Five vacancies in RS would soon arise from Madhya Pradesh, where the saffron party is in power, as the tenures of Prakash Javadekar, L Ganeshan, Thawarchand Gehlot and Meghraj Jain from BJP and Satyavrat Chaturvedi from Congress would come to an end.

The biennial elections are scheduled on March 23 to replace 58 Rajya Sabha members from all over the country.