Maharashtra Congress Defectors Get Rajya Sabha Tickets: BJP Declares Ashok Chavan's Candidature, Shinde's Shiv Sena To Nominate Milind Deora

Rewarding former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan for leaving Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated him as a Rajya Sabha candidate on Wednesday (14 February).

Interestingly, another leader Milind Deora, who left Congress last month to join Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena is also set to be nominated for Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, ANI reported.

BJP nominated two other leaders from Maharashtra for Rajya Sabha. One is Medha Kulkarni, national vice-president of BJP Mahila Morcha and other is BJP Maharashtra's vice-president Dr Ajit Gopchade.

Among the four candidates declared from Gujarat, the most prominent is BJP national president JP Nadda. The other three are industrialist Govind Dholakia, Gujarat president of BJP OBC Morcha Mayank Nayak and Jasvant Parmar.

Earlier in the day, BJP had declared Rajya Sabha candidates from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. BJD expressed its support for Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw "for the larger interest".

Another Union Minister Dr L Murugan was nominated for Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh. He is a Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Information and Broadcasting.

The other three nominees from Madhya Pradesh are Ujjain saint Umesh Nath Maharaj, MP BJP's Mahila Morcha president Maya Naroliya and BJP Kisan Morcha's national vice-president Banshilal Gurjar.