SP’s Rajya Sabha candidate Jaya Bachchan files nomination

Actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan, one of the six Rajya Sabha members of the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP who are retiring, has been renominated by the party.

Jaya Bachchan, the Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha member, filed her nomination on Friday for the biennial elections to the Upper House from Uttar Pradesh.

Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan during Parliament’s Budget Session in New Delhi. (Sonu Mehta/HT FILE PHOTO)

Voting to elect 58 members to the Rajya Sabha from different states will take place on March 23 between 9am and 4pm. The last date for filing nominations is March 12 and March 15 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature.

Actor-turned-politician, one of the six Rajya Sabha members of the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP who are retiring, has been renominated by the party.

Nanda is also among the members from the Samajwadi Party whose terms end on April 2. The others are Naresh Agarwal, Darshan Singh Yadav, Munawar Salim and Alok Tiwari.

Bachchan is a three-time member of Parliament. She was first elected to the Rajya Sabha by the Samajwadi Party in 2004. She remained a member till March 2006 and was elected again in June of 2006. She was re-elected for a third term in 2012.

There are 10 vacancies from Uttar Pradesh, six each from Bihar and Maharashtra, five each from Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, four each from Gujarat and Karnataka, three each from Odisha, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, two from Jharkhand and one each from Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The ruling BJP, which currently has 58 members in the Upper House, is likely to gain from the latest round of biennial polls. The party’s victory in Uttar Pradesh coupled with a strong presence in Maharashtra and Rajasthan are expected to add to its existing numbers in the upper house, giving it more voice to pass crucial bills.