The BJP will field Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu for the Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan. Mr. Bittu is currently Minister of State for Railways in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and the grandson of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
Out of the total 10 seats in the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, Congress has 5 and BJP has 4, while one seat is lying vacant at present. An election will be conducted to fill this vacant seat.
If the BJP manages to win in this seat, then it would have equal seats along with the Congress—both having 5 members.
BJP sources are of the view that Bittu's candidature would be a shot in the arm of the party's prospects, especially as Rajasthan shares a border with Punjab, his home state. This would be important for places like Ganganagar, where it was not quite up to the mark in the Assembly elections.
Ravneet Singh Bittu is a three-time Congress MP and now serves as Minister of State for Railways and Minister of State for Food Processing Industries in Modi 3.0's government. Lok Sabha from Congress he was elected to—for the first time in 2009 from Anandpur Sahib, then from Ludhiana in 2014 and 2019.
The Assembly of Rajasthan has a strength of 200; out of these, 6 are presently vacant. While the BJP commands 114 seats, that of the Congress is 66. With this majority in the Assembly, the BJP is expected to win the Rajya Sabha seat.
The current Members of Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan of the BJP are Rajendra Gehlot, Chunnilal Garasiya, Ghanshyam Tiwari, and Madan Rathore. Whereas Congress is represented in the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan by Sonia Gandhi, Neeraj Dangi, Mukul Wasnik, Pramod Tiwari, and Randeep Surjewala.
Read also | RSS All India Co-ordination Meeting on August 31 in Kerala
