External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and OBC leader Jugalji Thakor filed nomination papers on BJP tickets for Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat on Tuesday.
Jaishankar, who earlier served as foreign secretary, formally joined the BJP on Monday. Thakor is president of Gujarat BJP's OBC cell. When elected, Jaishankar would join the likes of Arun Jaitley and Smriti Irani, who have represented Gujarat in the Upper House.
The seats fell vacant following national BJP president Amit Shah and Irani winning Lok Sabha elections. The BJP's decision to give ticket to Thakor is seen as a move to woo the powerful OBC community, especially the Thakors.
The election will be held on July 5.
The Congress has fielded Chandrika Chudasama and Gaurav Pandya, a close aide of party leader Ahmed Patel, for the seats.
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It is highly likely that the BJP is all set to win both the seats, given the Election Commission's stand of holding separate elections for the two seats. Had there been a single election, both BJP and opposition Congress would have won a seat each on the basis of first preference votes of their MLAs.
The Congress had moved the Supreme Court contesting the Election Commission's move of holding two separate elections. On Monday, the commission reiterated its stand before the SC.
Opposition leader in Gujarat assembly, Paresh Dhanani, told media persons that the Congress would fight till the end to bring the case to a logical conclusion for the sake of democracy.
