JOIN USFinance Minister Arun Jaitley will contest the Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh while his Cabinet colleague Dharmendra Pradhan will fight from Madhya Pradesh.
Jaitley, a three-term MP, is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat while Petroleum Minister Pradhan represents Bihar in the Upper House.
Except for this two, the BJP central election committee decided to field five serving ministers and a party general secretary from the states which they are representing now.
While Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Tawarchand Gehlot is fighting from Madhya Pradesh, Health Minister J P Nadda will contest from his home state Himachal Pradesh.
Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad will be fielded from Bihar in the elections to vacancies arising from April 2 to 58 for Rajya Sabha seats in 17 states.
BJP general secretary will contest from from Rajasthan while two ministers of state Parshottam Rupala and Manusukh Mandaviya will contest from Gujarat.
There are four seats getting vacant in Gujarat and all are BJP MPs.
However, this time, BJP cannot return all of them from Gujarat as Congress is likely to win two seats owing to its improved numbers in the Assembly.
Party leaders said this was the reason why Jaitley was shifted to UP where it can manage victory in at least eight seats.
Similarly in Bihar where BJP is in alliance with JD(U), coalition compulsions may not allow it a spare seat for Pradhan, who hails from Odisha.
This round of Rajya Sabha elections would bring cheers to the saffron camp as their numbers will go up and bringing down the Opposition seats.