Gandhinagar/Ahmedabad, 15 February: On the last day of filing nominations for four Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat, four BJP candidates filed nomination papers. These include BJP national president JP Nadda, Mayank Nayak, Govind Dholakia and Jaswant Singh Parmar.
BJP President JP Nadda arrived at Ahmedabad airport in the morning to contest elections as Rajya Sabha candidate from Gujarat. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and BJP State President CR Patil welcomed him.
At present, out of 11 Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat, two seats have gone to non-Gujaratis. This includes BJP President JP Nadda and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.
Talking about Congress representation from Gujarat, there will not be a single Congressman in Rajya Sabha after the year 2026. Shakti Singh Gohil, the only MP currently representing the Congress, will also complete his term in June 2026.
The BJP has tried to create a balance of Saurashtra, North and Central Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha. One Leuva Patel and two OBCs from North and Central Gujarat have been given a chance. All four Rajya Sabha seats of Gujarat are going to BJP’s account. Till now two seats were with BJP and two seats were with the Congress.
However, due to lack of numbers, Congress has announced not to fill the form. Now, due to the number of MLAs being 156, BJP contenders will easily win these four seats. As a result, these four seats will remain unopposed.
JP Nadda is originally from Himachal Pradesh. JP Nadda had entered politics during his student days. He actively participated in various movements of Jayaprakash Narayan. In the year 1993, he was elected MLA for the first time from Bilaspur Sadar Assembly seat of Himachal Pradesh and was also elected Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. In 1998 he once again became an MLA. In the year 2010, he was made the National General Secretary of BJP. JP Nadda was elected Rajya Sabha MP in 2012. In 2014, when the BJP government came to power in the country, JP Nadda was given the charge of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In 2019, he was made the National Working President of BJP and in 2020, he was elected as the National President.
Mayank Nayak is a prominent OBC face in BJP from Mehsana and is also the President of BJP OBC Cell. He has been in charge of the Meri Mitti Mera Desh campaign. He has handled responsibilities from divisional level to state level. He once even drove a rickshaw to earn his living for the family.
Govind Dholakia is known as a prominent Patidar industrialist. He is a famous diamond merchant of Surat. He is originally from Dudhala in Amreli district of Saurashtra. He has done important work for water conservation in Saurashtra. Dholakia is considered close to Narendra Modi. He contributed Rs 11 crore in the construction of Ram temple, he is the owner of Ramakrishna Export Group, whose annual revenue is Rs 15000 crore.
Jashwant Singh Parmar is a well-known doctor of Godhra city and an executive member of Bakshi Panch Morcha of Panchmahal. He comes from Bairia Bakshipanch community. There are more than 60 thousand voters of Bairia Bakshipanch community in Godhra. During the 2017 assembly elections, he did not get the ticket but filed his nomination as an independent candidate and came third to the winning candidate.
