The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday nominated Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh, Health Minister JP Nadda from Himachal Pradesh and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Bihar.

The biennial Rajya Sabha elections will be held on March 23 to replace the 58 Upper House members who will retire later this year.

The BJP named Social Justice Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot and Petrol and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan
its nominees for two Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh. Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Mansukh L Mandaviya and Minister of State for Panchayati Raj, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Parshottam Rupala were nominated for the two seats from Gujarat. The BJP nominated Bhupender Yadav for a Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan.

On Tuesday, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati had named former MLA Bhimrao Ambedkar the party’s nominee for a Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati had resigned from the Rajya Sabha in July 2017, claiming that she was not being allowed to speak on alleged atrocities against Dalits under the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government.

The terms of 58 Rajya Sabha members from 16 states expire in April and May. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of retiring members, at 10, followed by six each in Maharashtra and Bihar, five in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, four in Gujarat and Karnataka, three each in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Rajasthan, two in Jharkhand and one each in Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.