Senior state Bharatiya Janata Party leader Meghraj Jain will be the party nominee for bypolls to fill the Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh which fell vacant on the demise of late Congress leader Arjun Singh.
Given the electoral arithmetic on the basis of the strength of the ruling BJP and the main Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the present Rajya Sabha bypolls would be a smooth ride for the BJP. Even if the current election becomes bi-polar, the Rajya Sabha seat will go to the BJP which has a huge majority in the House.
Initially there were speculations that the party might clear TV actor and BJP women’s wing president Smriti Irani’s candidature. It was in this backdrop that the state election committee of the BJP had met last Thursday and authorised state party president Prabhat Jha to send the panel of names for Rajya Sabha to the central election committee of the party. Mr Jha left for New Delhi on the same evening to communicate the names and two days later on Saturday, the party announced Mr Jain’s candidature.
The finalisation of candidature in support of Mr Jain, who has the full support of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was preceded by hectic lobbying within the ruling BJP.