Gandhinagar, June 8 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said the Congress’s continued absence from power in Gujarat for the past 30 years had culminated in a situation where the opposition party was not even in a position to field candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections, as all four BJP nominees filed their nomination papers for the biennial polls to the Upper House of Parliament.

The nominations of Raju Shukla, Mansinh Parmar, Mukesh Rathwa, and Jitendra Kanzariya were submitted at the Gujarat Legislative Assembly in Gandhinagar in the presence of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, BJP state president Jagdish Vishwakarma, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, BJP state organisation general secretary Ratnakarji, Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Purnesh Modi, state ministers, and senior party leaders.

Addressing reporters after nominations were filed, state government spokesperson and minister Jitu Vaghani said the outcome reflected the political mandate the BJP had received in Gujarat over several decades.

“In Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the people have elected BJP representatives with such an overwhelming majority that Congress is not even in a position to file nominations for the Rajya Sabha today,” Vaghani said.

He added that the electorate’s support for the BJP over the years reflected public confidence in the party’s governance record.

“For the past 30 years, the people of Gujarat have kept Congress away from power, which clearly shows how unsuccessful Congress rule must have been in the past,” he said.

Vaghani said the four candidates were heading to the Rajya Sabha on the strength of what he described as “the BJP’s work in the fields of public service, development, welfare, and governance under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi”.

BJP state president Jagdish Vishwakarma described the occasion as a significant moment in the state’s political history and said the party expected to secure all 11 Rajya Sabha seats allocated to Gujarat for the first time since the state’s formation in 1960.

He said grassroots party workers Mukesh Rathwa, Raju Shukla, Jitendra Kanzariya, and Mansinh Parmar had been selected as candidates under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP national president Nitin Nabin.

“With BJP members being elected to all 11 Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat, a new record will be created, and this event will be inscribed in golden letters in the pages of history,” Vishwakarma said.

He also linked the development to the BJP’s dominance in the state assembly, where Congress currently has 12 legislators.

“As a result of the overwhelming public support for the BJP, the Congress in Gujarat has been reduced to just 12 MLAs, making the state Congress-free in terms of representation in the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat,” he said.

Vishwakarma said the four nominees, all of whom emerged from the party organisation, would represent Gujarat’s interests in Parliament.

“All four candidates, who are grassroots BJP workers and are set to enter the Rajya Sabha, will become the voice of Gujarat’s 6.5 crore people and raise the state’s issues in the highest House of India’s democracy,” he said.

He expressed confidence that the four nominees would contribute to national policymaking and support the goal of a developed India by 2047.

Following the nomination process, all four candidates thanked the BJP’s national and state leadership for selecting them to contest the Rajya Sabha elections.

They said they would continue to work actively as representatives of the people of Gujarat and contribute to public causes in the future.

Scrutiny of nomination papers is scheduled for June 9, while June 11 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature.

Voting, if required, will take place on June 18.

–IANS

mys/dan