By IANS
Bhopal : Three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates from Madhya Pradesh filed their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha here Saturday amid claims by the ruling party that they will win all the three seats.
Three seats are falling vacant in the state and going by the numbers, the BJP is assured of victory in two seats while it need eight more votes to get all seats.
Among those who filed their papers are BJP vice president and outgoing Rajya Sabha member Maya Singh, BJP national secretary Prabhat Jha and party’s senior leader Raghunandan Sharma.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, senior party leader Sushma Swaraj and state BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar were present on the occasion. Two MLAs from Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) and Rashtriya Samanata Dal (RSD) and an independent MLA were also present.
“No one should remain under any illusion. We will also get the additional eight votes needed for the third candidate,” said Swaraj. She, however, refused to divulge who among the three would be contesting for the third seat.
Both Chouhan and Tomar also said they were sure of winning all three seats but didn’t disclose from where the additional eight votes would come from.
“One thing I can assure is that the BJP will not allow horse-trading,” said Chouhan.
BJP has 166 MLAs in a 230-seat sate assembly and needs 174 votes to win all three seats.
BJP had to postpone the filing of nomination papers twice this week as decision could not be reached as to who will contest the third seat.
The elections for Rajya Sabha are scheduled March 26.