List of BJP Rajya Sabha candidates: Names declared for all four seats in Gujarat; Rajasthan’s Satish Punia in the fight | Today’s news

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its list of candidates for the upcoming biennial Rajya Sabha elections on Friday (June 4). The list includes the names of 10 candidates from five of the 10 states that go to the polls this month. The party has also announced a candidate for the Odisha Rajya Sabha poll.

Rajya Sabha elections will be held on June 18 for 24 seats in 10 states, the Election Commission says, “The terms of office of the 24 members of the Council of States elected from 10 states will expire in June-July 2026.”

The full list of Rajya Sabha candidates was released by the BJP today:

Rajya Sabha elections will be held on four seats each in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, three each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two each in Jharkhand and one each in Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.

Odisha BJP Rajya Sabha Poll Candidate: The BJP also announced that Debashish Samantray, a former BJD leader who recently joined the BJP, will contest the Odisha Rajya Sabha by-election. The seat fell vacant after Samantray resigned from the primary membership of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and joined the BJP in May 2026. He was a Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha before he left the party and resigned from the upper house.

List of Rajya Sabha MPs whose term ends:

Those leaving the Rajya Sabha include Gowda, Congress president Kharge (both from Karnataka), union ministers Ravneet Singh (Rajasthan) and George Kurian (Madhya Pradesh, former chief minister Digvijay Singh, Congress leader Shaktisinhji Govil, among others).

The EC also announced by-polls for one seat for the state council from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

In Maharashtra, the council seat fell vacant after the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, who has since been elected to the state assembly.