BJP fields Mahesh Kewat against Congress’ Natarajan for third Rajya Sabha seat in MP

Bhopal, Jun 8 (PTI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday named Mahesh Kewat as its third candidate for the election to three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh.

Kewat, chairman of the Fishermen Welfare Board, will contest against Congress’ Meenakshi Natarajan for the third seat.

Earlier, on Saturday, the two other BJP candidates, Tarun Chugh and Rajneesh Aggarwal, filed their nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections. Before announcing the name of the third candidate, BJP leaders held a meeting at the chief minister’s residence here to review the situation.

Party sources said, in this meeting, a consensus was reached to field Kewat as third candidate, after which the central leadership gave its nod.

The BJP’s Central Election Committee announced Kewat as the third candidate on Sunday night.

Meenakshi Natarajan, the Congress’s candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls, will file her nomination on Monday.

On Saturday, a meeting of the Congress legislature party was held here, after which leaders claimed unity and boasted of Natarajan’s victory.

Currently, the effective vote count in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly is 228. Of these, the BJP has 164 MLAs and the Congress has 64.

Due to unclear status of Bina MLA Nirmala Sapre’s vote, which appears to be leaning towards the BJP, and the ban on the voting of Vijaypur MLA Mukesh Malhotra, the Congress effective tally has been reduced to 62.

Each candidate needs 58 votes to win in the Rajya Sabha polls. Consequently, the BJP needs 116 votes to win two seats. After casting 116 votes out of a total of 164, the BJP will have 48 remaining, while it will need an additional 10 votes to secure the third seat, party sources said.

Voting for the three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh will be held on June 18. The last date for filing nominations is June 8.

The Congress has the required numbers to win, but the BJP’s announcement of a third candidate has increased its concerns and made Natarajan’s path to victory difficult. PTI BNS MAS ARB ARB

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