The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contemplating a move to shift eight Union ministers from the Rajya Sabha to contest the Lok Sabha elections to counter the possibility of its numbers in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections dwindling.
The BJP had in the 2019 elections fielded three Union ministers from the Rajya Sabha — Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna, Smriti Irani from Amethi and Harpal Singh Puri from Amritsar — and all had won.
Piyush Goyal has been managing resources
Those who could be moved this time include Piyush Goyal, the leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha and a third time MP who is known as a crisis manager of the government both inside and outside Parliament. Goyal hails from Mumbai and, like his late father, has been managing the party's resources and logistics for several elections.
Others on the list are two-term MPs Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
Yadav, who has handled crucial political assignments on behalf of home minister Amit Shah in Gujarat and Bihar, may be fielded from Rajasthan which sent him to the Rajya Sabha or from Haryana, which is the state where he was born and which included him in the BJP's national executive.
Pradhan, the party's key political manager who had the Deogarh seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, has expressed his desire to contest the Lok Sabha election from Dhenkanal or Sambhalpur.
Mandaviya enjoys PM's trust
Mandaviya, who was recently assigned the crucial post as Minister of State for Health, hails from Bhavnagar in Saurashtra region, is among the BJP's most prominent Patidar leaders from Gujarat, and enjoys the trust of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Others who could be fielded for the Lok Sabha elections are Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar from Tamil Nadu. The names of Jyotiraditya Scindia, who won the Lok Sabha seat from Gwalior several times when he was in the Congress, and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav either from Gujarat or Odisha are also under consideration.
