NEW DELHI: George Kurian, Union Minister of State of State of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, will become the Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh. Including this, the BJP has announced its candidates for nine of the 12 Rajya Sabha seats where the elections will be held on September 3.

Kurian is contesting the Rajya Sabha seat vacated after Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia won the Guna constituency in the Lok Sabha elections. BJP is sure to win as it has a huge majority in the assembly. George Kurien and Thrissur MP Suresh Gopi are Kerala's representatives in the Modi cabinet.

Ravneet Singh Bittu, Minister of State for Railways and Food Processing Industries, will contest the seat vacated in Rajasthan after KC Venugopal became a Lok Sabha member. Bittu had left the Congress and joined the BJP before the elections. He contested for the Lok Sabha from Ludhiana in Punjab but lost to Congress's Amarinder Singh Raja Warring.
Kiran Choudhary has been nominated for the Rajya Sabha seat in Haryana, which fell vacant after Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rohtak. He left the Congress two months ago.

Rameswar Teli and Mission Ranjan Das were chosen for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Assam. Other candidates are Advocate Manan Kumar Mishra (Bihar), Dhairyasheel Patil (Maharashtra), Mamata Mohanta (Odisha) and Rajib Bhattacharjee (Tripura).