SHIMLA: The Bharatiya Janata Party nominated Indu Goswami, 53, for the Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh on Thursday.
Goswami is the ninth woman to be nominated to the Upper House from the state. She will file her nomination papers for the March 26 election in the Vidhan Sabha here on Friday.
The term of Rajya Sabha member Viplove Thakur of the Congress ends on April 6. Viplove was a minister in the Virbhadra Singh government and also served as state Congress chief.
Goswami was an Akhil Bharatiya Janata Party activist from 1987-90 and appointed general secretary of the BJP Mahila Morcha in 1992. She was the state secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha from 1994-96. She served the party in different capacities till she was elevated to the post of state secretary in 2013. She worked with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the BJP Yuva Morcha vice-president.
Hailing from Baijnath, she unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections from Palampur. BJP leader and former Union minister Shanta Kumar had opposed her candidature. His protégé, journalist-turned-politician and one-time legislator Praveen Sharma, rebelled and contested as an Independent. Ashish Butail, the son of former speaker Brij Bihari Butail, wrested the seat.
After her defeat, Goswami was keen on the assembly ticket from Dharamshala when the seat fell vacant after minister Kishan Kapoor was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kangra. Following her differences with the then party chief Satpal Singh Satti and chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, she resigned as the head of the state women’s wing.
{{/usCountry}}After her defeat, Goswami was keen on the assembly ticket from Dharamshala when the seat fell vacant after minister Kishan Kapoor was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kangra. Following her differences with the then party chief Satpal Singh Satti and chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, she resigned as the head of the state women’s wing.
{{/usCountry}}The party was quick to appoint former state women’s commission chairperson Dhaneshwari, who is the younger sister of forest minister Govind Thakur, as the new state Mahila Morcha chief.
Goswami was chairperson of the state commission for women commission from 2013-16 and chairperson of the state social welfare board from 2000-03.
The BJP state election committee, led by party unit chief Rajeev Bindal, met in Shimla three days ago. The 10-member committee shortlisted former state party chief Satpal Singh Satti, Central University vice-chancellor Kuldeep Chand Agnihotri and former Rajya Sabha member Kripal Parmar besides Indu Goswami. Satti served as BJP chief for eight years and is credited for strengthening the state unit, while the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh backed Agnihotri’s candidature.
The party’s parliamentary board in Delhi decided on Goswami, who is also a social worker. Other women from the state in the Rajya Sabha have been Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Satyawati Dang, Lila Devi, Mohinder Kaur, Chandresh Kumari, Usha Malhotra, Bimla Kashyap and Viplove Thakur.
Himachal Pradesh has three Rajya Sabha seats. The other Rajya Sabha members from the state are BJP national president Jagat Parkash Nadda and Congress deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma.